The Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) has been awarded a $4,875,000 Sector Partnership National Emergency Grant (SPNEG) from the US Department of Labor. The grant will support connecting dislocated workers, including dislocated veterans and underemployed workers with employers in the advanced manufacturing, agriculture, health sciences, information technology, and transportation, distribution, and logistics fields.
With the additional funding, DWD in partnership with the Indiana Career Council, will be able to move toward delivering on the strategic plan to transform Indiana’s workforce through regional sector partnerships and work-and-learn initiatives. These activities across priority industry sectors, are fundamental to preparing individuals to fill the one million anticipated job openings that will occur in the Hoosier economy through 2025. The state will also be able to provide Work-and-Learn Models to implement an array of strategies, including on-the-job training, internships, pre-apprenticeship, and apprenticeship programs, and incumbent worker training, around the state.
“The federal support will allow Indiana to further expand regional planning and focus on sector strategies aligning and supporting local economies, said Steven J. Braun, DWD commissioner. “The Indiana Career Council and its community task forces have strategically laid the groundwork, and this funding will further allow communities to define and create career pathway options that align education and workforce training with in-demand local business opportunities.”
The U.S. Department of Labor awarded more than $138 million to 27 states and the Cherokee tribal nation through the SPNEG program. The funds were awarded to develop innovative job-training programs focused on regional and industry-specific approaches to workforce and economic development to meet those needs of a local or regional labor market. The grants will help connect workers who lost a job through no fault of their own and individuals struggling with long-term unemployment to a broad range of services, including on-the-job training; transitional jobs, pre-apprenticeships and Registered Apprenticeships, job search assistance, career planning and job coaching.
More information about the US Department of Labor through the Sector Partnership National Emergency Grant, can be found at dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ETA20151200.htm.
