By Felicia Felmlee
Murphy News Service
Anoka-Ramsey Community College will provide training for 35 Alliance Machine’s employees in a government-private entity partnership aimed at developing employee skills that will strengthen the company and the community.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) awarded more than $2 million in workforce development grants to Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) institutions. The grants will provide customized training for employees of eleven businesses in the state.
Anoka-Ramsey Community College was awarded a $49,475 grant – allowing employees from Alliance Machine to receive training for office and production process skills.
Alliance Machine, located in Elk River, is a precision machine shop specializing in medium to complex computer numerical control (CNC) machining.
The grants were awarded under the agency’s Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) Program to train 1,176 current and new workers.
Gov. Mark Dayton proposed $8.4 million in funding that was allocated from the 2013 legislative session for Job Skills Partnership.
“The customized training provided by the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership Program creates an opportunity for workers to not only learn valuable skills for employment, but forms a stepping stone for further career advancement,” Katie Clark Sieben, DEED commissioner, said.
Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) will provide training for 50 Delta Airlines employees’ after being awarded $376,958. The employees will be offered a 72-credit training program.
The partnership between MCTC and Delta allows MCTC to reopen its Aircraft Mechanics program in the state. Training may be open to non-Delta employees in the third year of the project.
St. Cloud Technical and Community College will also provide training for two businesses: Talon Innovations Corp. and WFSI.
Talon Innovations was awarded a $275,000 grant that will allow the company to expand its medical device manufacturing capabilities by training 120 employees, 20 of them new to the company.
A grant of $300,000 will also allow St. Cloud Technical and Community College to provide training to 80 employees at WISI of Sauk Rapids. The training program will advance the employees’ welding skills and provide supervisors’ with leadership training.
The following projects received funding in the latest grant round:
- Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical, ProAct – $200,000
- Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical, Northern Engraving – $235,000
- Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical, Cytec – $323,975
- Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical, Winona ORC Industries – $49,803
- Alexandria Technical and Community College, WASP, Inc. – $49,931
- Minnesota State University Mankato, Kato Roofing, Inc. – $49,755
- Pine Technical College, Stantec – $150,000
The program awarded more than $5 million to train 6,549 workers from 33 businesses in Minnesota for the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Officials estimate the program will attract an additional $13 million from participating businesses and educational institutions.
Felicia is a senior studying journalism and psychology at the University of Minnesota.