New Grant Awarded for Montana’s ‘Green’ Apprenticeship Training

Montana’s Department of Labor and Industry today announced a new $70,000 WIRED (Workforce Innovation and Regional Economic Development) grant awarded to its Apprenticeship and Training Program. The grant is designed to help labor groups train technical instructors in ‘green’ coursework.

"This is a great investment in our 21st century workforce," Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Keith Kelly said. "This grant allows instructors to be trained in rapidly changing technologies, giving a competitive edge to Montana’s apprentices."

Labor-affiliated apprenticeship programs provide a high quality classroom instructor training environment for approximately 48% of all registered Montana apprentices, but these training programs currently have limited budgets to upgrade instructors to compete in ‘green’ and energy efficient technologies. The new WIRED grant funding will provide an estimated 20 active labor-affiliated apprenticeship programs with an additional $3,500 per program to offset the cost for this new instructor training.

"The WIRED grant gives Montana JATC (Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee) an opportunity to send instructors to the national training institute at the University of Michigan for linkage training necessary for green jobs." said Gary Pemble, State Training Director of the Montana Electrical Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee.

The grant was awarded by Montana’s WIRED Executive Steering Committee. The WIRED program is funded through the U.S. Department of Labor. Montana’s WIRED Committee is appointed by Governor Schweitzer and includes members from the Department of Labor, Department of Commerce, Department of Agriculture, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and the Office of Higher Education

The Department of Labor and Industry’s Apprenticeship and Training Program recently received $44,000 in federal stimulus dollars from the Governor’s discretionary fund to develop ‘green’ technical online coursework for the entire apprenticeship community.