Central Mass. Firms See Increase In Training Funds
Grant awards up 74 percent locally
Central Massachusetts companies received 74 percent more money from the state Workforce Training Fund in the 2007 fiscal year than they did the previous year. They used that money, a total of more than $4.2 million, for everything from helping nurses get more advanced degrees to showing factory line workers how to implement lean production methods.
The Workforce Training Fund was created in 1999 as a way to help the state's businesses stay competitive. It is funded by an employer surcharge of $8.40 per employee. The fund pays for "express" grants for small companies using off-the-shelf training and incentive grants to help train workers who were previously unemployed, but the vast majority of the money goes to general grants, which allow companies to customize their own training programs.
The largest grant given in Central Massachusetts in FY07, for $311,480, went to the InterCare Alliance, a partnership of 10 Worcester-area nursing homes. The money made it possible for certified nursing assistants to train as licensed practical nurses, and for LPNs to become registered nurses, according to Lori Piracci, human resources director for Oriol Healthcare, the parent company of one of the nursing homes.
Also receiving grants of more than $200,000 were pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca LP, for its Westborough location, and TRW Automotive for its Westminster plant.
Companies receiving the grants must match them dollar for dollar, but many pay for part of that obligation simply by paying their workers' wages during the trainings.
Paper Cuts
The Workforce Training Fund annual report claims that 96 percent of grant recipients say they would recommend the program to other employers, and several of the Central Massachusetts companies that got the grants agreed that they were pleased with the results.
Pam Hanna, human resources manager at plastics manufacturer SMC in Sterling said the company applied for the grant in its previous incarnation as Cycles Inc. to help train about 90 employees in team problem solving, quality testing and other aspects of lean manufacturing. When SMC acquired the company, she said, executives there were happy to keep the training process going.
Some employers said applying for the grants, and then doing the required paperwork to report results to the state, took a lot of work.
"I would say be prepared to spend some time, but it's worth it," said Lisa Paine, assistant vice president and training manager at Middlesex Savings Bank, where about 200 employees received customer service training through a $128,325 grant. "It's saving us a lot of money, and we're getting some nice results from it."
Training companies that do significant amounts of training in Massachusetts commonly take care of the grant application. Hanna said the company Cycles hired, National Training Associates, which is based in Connecticut but also has an office in East Longmeadow, wrote the grant and filled out other state paperwork.
"I don't think it would be something I'd want to do on my own," she said.
The Saint Gobain plant in Worcester, which used a $107,616 grant to train about 145 people in its ceramics division in lean manufacturing techniques, also found an in-state trainer - the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership - that was able to handle the paperwork, according to spokesman Bill Seiberlich.
Seiberlich said Saint Gobain found going through the application process, with the Partnership's help, "relatively easy." He said the only problem for his company was that it would have liked to train more people. Restrictions on the grant application allowed the company to apply for a grant for only one of its several divisions, he said.
The state awarded a total of $21.7 million in general program grants in FY07, up from $18.9 million the previous year. The money allowed 285 companies to train a total of 29,860. In Central Massachusetts, $4,230,094 went to 52 companies to train 4,765 employees.
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