黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 Office of Workforce Strategy will receive $24 million in federal funding to expand job training programs that have struggled to meet demand amid a shortage of skilled workers in the state.
The OWS was one of 32 recipients selected for the Commerce Department鈥檚 $500 million 鈥淕ood Jobs Challenge鈥� program, funded through the American Rescue Plan and administered by Commerce鈥檚 Economic Development Administration.
The grant comes on top of an earlier $70 million in American Rescue Plan funding, which the state allocated , a short-term training program aimed at workers displaced by the pandemic. Launched earlier this year, CareerConneCT quickly drew 鈥� well above its $70 million budget.
鈥淭his is another significant grant for us to be able to continue our workforce efforts,鈥� said Max Reiss, a spokesman for Gov. Ned Lamont.
Reiss said the grant will be used in a 鈥渢argeted鈥� way, to boost skills and help people struggling to return to the workforce. The funding will go toward training for the manufacturing, health care, information technology and biomedical sectors.
鈥淭his could be significant for as many as 2,000 people to get a strong foothold in one of these sectors,鈥� Reiss said.
The application was highly competitive. More than 500 programs applied for the , which is expected to create a total of 50,000 jobs across 31 states.
In a press conference announcing the recipients Tuesday evening, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the goal was to support programs that would boost labor force participation, bringing people back to work who鈥檝e been more difficult to reach.
鈥淲e had a big emphasis on equity,鈥� Raimondo said. 鈥淩eaching everyone, women, people of color, people without a college degree, people in rural communities. 鈥� What we鈥檙e trying to do is make sure we get to everyone in America who needs to be upskilled to have the training to get a job.鈥�
The funding comes just over two weeks after 黑料吃瓜网 nabbed another competitive American Rescue Plan-funded grant. That one, $119 million from the Treasury Department, will be used by the state鈥檚 quasi-public venture capital outfit, 黑料吃瓜网 Innovations, 鈥� one aimed at supporting entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities and the other targeting clean energy, green technology and environmentally safe manufacturing startups.
On Wednesday, Gov. Ned Lamont is slated to announce a new $35 million workforce training program targeting the health care sector, also funded in part with American Rescue Plan money.
Presidential advisor and American Rescue Plan coordinator Gene Sperling said Tuesday that the president had set out two main goals for the broad COVID-19 spending bill.
鈥淥ne was to jumpstart equitable, strong, job-related recovery to get us out of the crisis, but secondly, to ensure that we had an enduring equitable recovery.鈥�
Sperling said the many workforce development initiatives it鈥檚 supporting 鈥渁re really designed for that second goal 鈥� to make sure that even after we鈥檝e lifted out of the worst of the crisis, that this is a recovery that鈥檚 going to meet the president鈥檚 values, our values of lifting everyone.鈥�