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Workforce Alliance Receives $6M Grant To Fund Manufacturing Job Training Program

The Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas

The Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas is launching a new job-training program that’s designed to get more people into the advanced manufacturing industry.

The Workforce Alliance is coordinating a tuition-free training program that’s expected to start next spring. The U.S. Department of Labor awarded a $6 million grant for the project.

Students at Wichita State University, Hutchinson Community College and Wichita Area Technical College will be able to get paid on-the-job training at area manufacturers in addition to their classroom education.

Workforce Alliance President Keith Lawing says it’s an effort to get more skilled workers in the pipeline for in-demand jobs.

"We’re going to really focus on an 'earn and learn' model," Lawing says. "So when someone enrolls in the training, we’re working with an employer upfront, and that employer will provide jobs."

Lawing expects about 1,100 students to take part in the on-the-job training program over the next four years.

"This grant will allow people to get tuition-free training that is done with an employer, in addition to a local community college or university, to help them prepare for jobs in advanced manufacturing," Lawing says. 

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Follow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar.

 
To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

 

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.