Nearly $3M in funding for manufacturing

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) applauded news the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has selected the Greater Oh-Penn Manufacturing Apprenticeship Network to receive funding through DOL’s American Apprenticeship Grant program. In April, Brown wrote to the DOL in support of the nearly $3 million award for the Oh-Penn Interstate Region – which serves Ohio’s Ashtabula, Columbiana, Geauga, Mahoning, Portage, and Trumbull Counties.

“Local companies and manufacturers have jobs to fill – but they need workers with the specific skills and training that will help them grow their business,” said Brown. “The Oh-Penn Interstate Region is working with local entities to help address the skills gap in advanced manufacturing and other industries and connect Ohioans with jobs. With this grant from the Department of Labor, the Greater Oh-Penn Manufacturing Apprenticeship Network and its partners will be better equipped to link prospective employees with training and apprenticeships that will help them land good-paying jobs.”

The Greater Oh-Penn Manufacturing Apprenticeship Network – led by Ohio’s Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition and by Pennsylvania’s West Central Job Partnership – is comprised of five industry-led sector partnerships in Ohio and Pennsylvania including: Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition, Erie Regional Manufacturer Partnership, Advanced Materials and Diversified Manufacturing Industry Partnership of Lawrence & Mercer Counties (PA), Advanced Materials and Diversified Manufacturing Industry Partnership in Northwest PA, and the Portage County Manufacturers Coalition. Additional partners include: Workforce Investment Areas in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the Ohio Apprenticeship Council, the PA Department of Labor & Industry, and local colleges, universities, and career and technical centers.

The Network will receive $2,998,625 to help manufacturers in the greater Ohio-Pennsylvania Interstate Region increase their ability to find highly-skilled, credentialed employees and adopt the apprenticeship model. This will help increase manufacturing apprenticeships, provide for better recruitment of workers, and boost technical instruction by community colleges.

The American Apprenticeship Grant program will award $175 million in grant funding nationwide to help train and hire more than 34,000 new apprentices in high-growth and high-tech industries as diverse as health care, IT, and advanced manufacturing while scaling up proven programs in construction, transportation and energy in the next five years.

Brown is working to help ensure that all Ohioans are prepared to enter the workforce through sectors-based skills training. In July 2014, President Obama signed into law the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), legislation that contains provisions modeled after Brown’s Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success (SECTORS) Act that would help dislocated workers train for high-tech jobs in their region. The SECTORS Act provisions will promote and require sector-based partnerships to ensure that workforce training programs are developed with industry input and tailored to meet companies’ workforce needs.

Source: www.brown.senate.gov