"What is going to happen is that there are two aspects to the grants," said program manager Ed Werstein of the Workforce Development Center in Pewaukee. "One will be the promotion and funding of apprenticeship programs. A portion of the cost of their training of apprentices will be reimbursed through the grants. The other part will be reimbursement of tuition and books and training costs for non-apprentices."
The grant recipient is the Workforce Development Boards of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties.
"The total grant is $3 million over a two-year period," said Werstein, whose position was created under the grant. "The vast majority is in the training budget. Over $2.5 million goes directly into training reimbursements."
The remaining $500,000 will go to the workforce development boards for administrative expenses, according to Werstein.
The grant has limits for expenditures of $1,000 per participant and $5,000 per company, Werstein said. Grant money can be used to train employees at any accredited technical college.
"Given the economy and the situation a lot of small businesses are in right now, it is a great opportunity for them to be able to send their employees to get the skills they need so the companies can be more efficient," said Pat Dulmes of the newly-opened Applied Manufacturing Technology Center at Moraine Park Technical College, West Bend.
Paradoxically, money to fund the grants originates from the visa fees paid by foreign workers coming to the United States to staff hard-to-fill technical jobs.
For more information on the H-1B Technical Training Grants, contact Werstein at 262-695-7883.
Sept. 13, 2002 Small Business Times. Milwaukee
