Seneca Co. companies using $80M state training program

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[caption id="" align="alignright" width="396"]Image removed. National Machinery was awarded a $40K+ grant under the IWTVP.[/caption] The State of Ohio is investing millions of tax dollars into improving the skills of Ohioans working right now.  Those currently employed workers--called "incumbent" workers in workforce development lingo--have often been overlooked by state and federal training programs, which have traditionally helped the unemployed, dislocated workers, and/or new hires get skills to get a job. The Ohio Incumbent Workforce Training Voucher Program (IWTVP) turns the "new hires"-only model on its head and takes casino fees and delivers it directly to companies in certain targeted industries  to cover up to half of the costs of training those employees, up to $4,000 per employee and $250,000 per company. The first round in 2012 totaled $20 million, and another $30 million was released last year. Another $30 million has been budgeted for the next state fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2014. In the last round, 620 companies were given grants, with more than 51,000 workers planned to receive training. In Seneca County, National Machinery, a world leader in metal cold forming equipment based in Tiffin, received a grant of more than $43,000 and has used about half of it so far. Church & Dwight, manufacturer of the famous Arm & Hammer baking soda, received a grant of about $7,000 and has spent about 2/3 of it. We would love to see more businesses take advantage of this great program, and Carol Owen Kern, the county Workforce Administrator, will help businesses determine if they're qualified and help them through the application process. Businesses I've talked to love working with Carol, who can be reached by phone at 419-447-5011 (322) or by email at owenc@odjfs.state.oh.us. Given that we're only four months away from the new state fiscal year, we want companies to begin to become aware of the program now. Here are some key links for the program:
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