Funding supports regional partnership, focuses on high-tech training
(Utica, NY – Oct. 2014) U.S. Representative Richard Hanna recently announced a $3 million federal grant for workforce development programs in Herkimer, Madison and Oneida counties from the U.S. Department of Labor.
The Workforce Investment Board is one of just 11 grant recipients nationwide. It is a collaborative effort among many agencies and programs assisting job seekers, workers and businesses in Herkimer, Madison and Oneida counties. It utilizes a ‘One-Stop’ approach in connecting businesses and job seekers using personal and high-tech delivery of information and services.
This funding will develop and expand innovative strategies to help Americans return to work by delivering services more efficiently, facilitating cooperation across programs and funding streams, and focusing on partnerships with specific employers or industry sectors to develop programs that reflect current and future skill needs.
“This competitive funding will help regional job seekers connect with employers and work opportunities right here in upstate New York,” Hanna said. “I am pleased this grant will support the Workforce Investment Board in carrying out its important mission even better and focus on preparing the next generation of New Yorkers find solid high-tech jobs.”
“This regional project represents a partnership among our outstanding community colleges and the public workforce investment system to target students who have great potential but need further preparation to enter high-growth careers in areas such as nanotechnogy,” said Alice Savino, Executive Director of the Workforce Investment Board. “By helping students succeed at college and then enter the workforce, we will help the region’s employers have the workers they need to fuel continued economic growth all across the counties that are working together. We want to thank Congressman Hanna for his support of this project and his other work to bring our communities together on behalf of the workforce of the future.”
The WIB’s Workforce Innovations Project bridges the gap between workforce and education, using sophisticated online tools and old-fashioned community outreach to help young economically disadvantaged adults achieve success.
Through this project, the Workforce Investment Board of Herkimer, Madison and Oneida Counties, supported by the power of the State University of New York and its community colleges, will enroll 1,800 college dropouts in postsecondary training and education that leads to high-growth jobs, while creating a regional on-line tutoring and outreach project that will help the workforce system and the region’s community colleges connect with college dropouts and help them succeed in college as a first step to finding good-paying jobs. This project, by working with employers across the region, breaks silos and creates a new partnership that can lead to thousands of young people getting the postsecondary training and education employers require for the high-growth jobs being created in the current economy.
Partners include:
State University of New York
Broome-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services
Scalzo, Zogby & Wittig
Black River Systems Company
Broom Tioga Workforce
State University of New York Broome Community College
Mohawk Valley Economic Development Growth Enterprise
Tompkins Cortland Community College
Tompkins County Workforce Investment Board
ACCESS Federal Credit Union
Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga- Board of Cooperative Education Services
Delaware Chenango Madison Otsego Board of Cooperative Education Services
Masonic Medical Research Laboratory
Mohawk Valley Community College
Milford City School District
Astrocom Electronics Inc.
This is the second round of grants under the Workforce Innovation Fund, which invests in programs that support, evaluate and enhance workforce investment strategies that generate long-term improvements in the performance of the public workforce system, outcomes for job seekers and employers, and cost-effectiveness.
To learn more about the Workforce Innovation Fund, visit www.doleta.gov/workforce_innovation/.