State Funds Assist Massachusetts Employers with Critical Training
Needs
For many employers, employee development activities, such as training,
can be an area that suffers when there is an economic downturn. Massachusetts
employers have been able to address critical training needs with the
assistance of the Massachusetts Division of Career Services, Workforce
Training Funds. These funds help address both basic skills training
and more advanced skills and knowledge training for employees and employers
in order to improve the competitiveness of their company. Training in
many cases can be done in a group setting to help maximize training
dollars.
MassMEP Instructor, Jose Garcia provides classroom instruction in lean
concepts to Hudson Lock employees.
WTF Background
The Division of Career Services (DCS), an agency of the Massachusetts
Department of Workforce Development, administers the Workforce Training
Fund. The fund provides resources to Massachusetts businesses and workers
to train current and newly hired employees. Its goal is to help improve
employee skills and maintain the economic strength of the Commonwealth's
businesses.
Since the first round of grants in March 1999, the fund has awarded
$77.1 million to 1,210 Massachusetts companies to train 117,247 Massachusetts
workers.
An additional 300 companies have received Express grants totaling almost
$1.4 million to train 2,193 Massachusetts workers. The average cost
per trainee: $638.
Types of Grants Awarded
There are two types of training grants awarded to organizations that
can assist with the training of incumbent employees in a variety of
subject areas, from basic skills that employees may need to be able
to perform their jobs more productively -- such as English as a second
language, basic workplace math, and blueprint reading -- to more advanced
levels of training -- such as "continuous improvement" training
using lean manufacturing concepts, quality systems training such as
ISO registration assistance, and six sigma training. There are many
areas that employers may need to have their employees trained in order
to help their business prosper.
The first type of grant employers can access is the WTF
(Workforce Training Fund) Express Grant. This grant provides
employers with 50 or fewer employees access to as much as $15,000 per
year for training for their employees. Companies can submit an online
application and select from a wide variety of courses that have been
listed on the grant web site. Grants provide 50% of the cost of the
training with employers providing the other 50%. The process is relatively
quick and employees can begin training once an application has been
approved. The approval process takes approximately six weeks.
The second type of grant that is available to employers is the WTF
General Fund Grant. This grant allows employers of any size
to apply for up to $250,000 dollars for training their employees. In
this upcoming round, employers or employer groups can apply for even
more under certain circumstances. Grant applications are considered
three times per year and the application process is more comprehensive.
(The next deadline for submission of these grants is November 15,
2004. Because of the comprehensiveness of the application, notification
of status can take from two to three months from the date of submission.
Training that has been applied for cannot begin until formal approval
has been made.
More detailed information on both of these grant programs can be found
on their web site http://www.detma.org.
MassMEP Involvement
The MassMEP has helped over 60 Massachusetts companies, across the
state, to access training funds through the state's WTF grant programs.
Project Managers work with companies to help them address their training
needs and organize their training activities. MassMEP provides direct
training services where they have the expertise such as lean manufacturing
concepts, or they provide access to proven professional resources who
can deliver the quality training to address a company's needs.
Current Client Implementation
Recently, the MassMEP assisted Hudson
Lock Company, an inner-city lock manufacturer in Hudson, MA.
They received a WTF General Fund grant to train their employees in lean
manufacturing using the services of the MassMEP. With this grant, their
company President, Joel Liberto, and Vice President, Bob Sylvia, made
the commitment for their organization to train all 200 employees in
basic lean manufacturing concepts.
Hudson Lock recognizes the importance of having all of their employees
understand lean before they actively participate in making improvements.
In follow-on grant activity, employees will be involved with training
in actual application concepts such as value stream mapping, 5S, set-up
reduction, and plant layout kaizen activity on their production floor.
MassMEP Instructor Garcia provides assistance in a TimeWise™ Lean
101 simulation exercise that allows students to apply lean principles
learned in the classroom.
The goals of Hudson Lock's grant are to first train employees to understand
lean improvement concepts so they can help reduce the company's inventory
requirements and production space requirements, and improve the overall
throughput. This training is being done in a multicultural workforce
that includes Hispanic and Portuguese employees. Special consideration
has been taken in the planning process to eliminate potential language
barriers that could make the training less effective. The MassMEP has
developed their training methods to be able to do just this and ensure
the training is as effective as possible.
Hudson Lock employees participate in TimeWise™ Lean 101.
If you are interested in improving the competitiveness of your company
through this program contact, Jim Gusha or Kevin Smith, MassMEP Project
Managers at jamesg@massmep.org
or kevins@massmep.org or call
508-831-7020.
