WIRED awards $1.2 million in additional grants
More than $8 million in grants have been given to local organizations developing talent for the region's high-demand jobs
The Metro Denver WIRED Initiative announced award recipients for its second Workforce Innovation Grant. In this round of grants, WIRED awarded approximately $1.2 million to six area partnerships that will provide job training and related activities to help workers (both unemployed and employed) gain skills and competencies needed to obtain or upgrade employment positions in high-growth economic sectors.
The two rounds of Workforce Innovation Grants are designed to address specific industry needs by funding innovative workforce development, training, entrepreneurship and other industry-specific education and training partnership projects. These grants focus on employment or employee advancement in WIRED's four target industry clusters: aerospace, bioscience, energy, and information technology-software.
In March 2008, the first round of Workforce Innovation Grants provided $3 million of funding to nine projects. In January 2007, 10 recipients received JumpStart grants totaling $3.7 million.
The second round of Workforce Innovation Grant recipients and their programs include:
- Adams County Workforce & Business Center - Renewable Energy Course; Photovoltaic Materials and Device Fabrication
- Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology - Addressing the Challenges of Colorado's Advanced Manufacturing Workforce
- Colorado State University Product Development and Manufacturing Core - Building a Regional Training Center for Product Translation
- Denver Public Schools - Building Colorado's Talent Pipeline to Aerospace and Technology
- Front Range Community College - Research Animal Technology, Care and Management
- Poudre School District - Clean Energy Manufacturing and GIS Technology Manufacturing
"Receiving this grant from WIRED will allow us to recruit, train and funnel students to fill the employment needs of the aerospace and IT industries in the region," said Scott Springer, executive director of Post-Secondary Pathways, CTE and Arts for Denver Public Schools. "In addition to training and placing participants, we are excited to partner with Lockheed Martin to allow for teacher externships and student internships during the summer. This opportunity will provide these individuals with the real-world experience needed to understand the concepts they learn and teach in the classroom."
WIRED and its partners researched industry needs and conducted a gap analysis of existing education and training resources and skill and talent shortages in WIRED's target industries. With the information from this research, WIRED teamed with its partners to develop and support 25 innovative grants that educate, train, and place individuals in jobs. All WIRED grantee programs include partnerships among businesses, education, and the public workforce system.
"The grants that WIRED has funded are helping to create transformational and sustainable changes in our education and workforce systems to enhance our region's global competitiveness," said Ledy Garcia-Eckstein, executive director of the Metro Denver WIRED Initiative. "We are aware of the current challenges in our economy; however, these grants will allow students and workers to gain the skills needed for jobs that will be created in our region over the long term."