EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION
USDL
Wednesday, July 1, 1998
VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE AND U.S. SECRETARY OF LABOR
ALEXIS M. HERMAN ANNOUNCE $7.5 MILLION IN GRANTS FOR
A TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM FOR DISLOCATED WORKERS
Vice President Al Gore and Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman announced today that
the U.S. Department of Labor will award grants totaling $7.5 million to 11 organizations
throughout the country. The money will be used to develop and test public-private partnerships
that will train dislocated workers in technology-related occupations and industries.
"Today's new economy -- fueled by innovation, information and new technologies--
requires a new investment in our workforce," Vice President Gore said. "We must ensure that
the workers of today get the skills, education and training they'll need for the jobs of tomorrow."
"We must provide American workers, who have lost jobs because of downsizing, with
the skills and opportunities to find new jobs in the rapidly growing hi-tech industries," said
Herman. "We don't have a job shortage in this country we have a skills shortage. We want to
make sure American workers are prepared to get these good paying jobs. These grants will
bring together employers and training providers to develop strategies to meet our nation's need
for skilled technology workers."
The 11 grants for two-year demonstration projects are authorized under the Title III of the
Job Training Partnership Act. The dislocated worker program is a comprehensive re-training
approach to assist workers who have been, or are about to be, laid off for reasons such as
technological change, foreign competition, natural disasters or government actions. Generally
such workers are eligible if they are unlikely to return to their previous industry or occupation.
The recipients are:
- the Private Industry Council of Milwaukee, which is receiving $750,000 for the
Launch Pad Demonstration Project to assist 150 dislocated workers, especially women,
with good math skills gain information technology (IT) skills for entry-level IT jobs;
- the Southeastern Connecticut Private Industry Council, Inc., in New London,
Connecticut, which is receiving $749,400 to collaborate with the University of New
Haven's Southeastern campus, Technology for Connecticut, Analysis & Technology,
Computer Sciences Corporation and Sonalysts, Inc. to operate an innovative program to
meet regional shortages of information technology workers;
- the Seattle-King County Private Industry Council, which is receiving $750,000, to
work with Bellevue Community College to develop the Technology Innovations Program,
a One-Stop/community college technology training program particularly for older women
and people with disabilities;
- the Northern Virginia Community College System, in Herndon, Virginia, which is
receiving $735,383 for the Northern Virginia Technology Workforce Initiative for
Dislocated Workers, involving high-technology executives, local government officials,
educators and civic leaders in a partnership to retrain workers in technology-oriented
skills;
- the Economic Development and Industrial Corporation, in Boston, which is receiving
$750,000 to retrain and re-employ dislocated workers seeking jobs in high-technology
systems support work;
- Bates Technical College, in Tacoma, Washington, which is receiving $680,718 to train
76 students in a five-county area in programming, PC maintenance and network support,
and place 52 students in careers requiring information-technology and other advanced
technology skills;
- Eastern New Mexico University, in Roswell, New Mexico, which is receiving $750,000
for a project using new training technologies and distance learning to serve 350 unskilled
dislocated workers in a large area of southeastern New Mexico and western Texas;
- the City of Phoenix, Human Services Department, Employment and Training
Division, which is receiving $750,000 for the TECH-LINK project in the Phoenix One-Stop Career Center to bring together employers and training providers to train workers in
a variety of computer-systems occupations;
- Mitretek Systems, in McLean, Virginia, which is receiving $724,478 for the TekAid
project to help dislocated workers develop sufficient skills to transition into information-technology jobs initially focusing on Year 2000 and other legacy application problems.
- the City of Oklahoma City, which is receiving $217,654 to train dislocated workers,
particularly women, in software programs such as PowerBuilder and Java, and
- the Southeast Minnesota Private Industry Council, Inc., in Rochester, Minnesota,
which is receiving $656,558 to train dislocated workers for jobs in high-technology fields
with labor shortages, including computer scientists and engineers, information-technology
technicians and computer assemblers.
###
This information will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone:
(202) 219-5577. TDD Message Phone: 1-800-326-2577.
News releases from the U.S. Department of Labor are also accessible on the Internet at:
http://www.dol.gov.