ECC Professor Chris Rowse demonstrates Northern Essex Community College’s new body box for Gareth Morgan of Morgan Scientific, left, and Michael Cornelius, manager, noninvasive services, Merrimack Valley Hospital, during a presentation last year. College student Lenka Poliquin of Plaistow, N.H., is in the box.
A Haverhill firm is among 186 companies sharing more than $10.4 million in state Workforce Training Fund grants.
Morgan Scientific, a medical supply business at 151 Essex St., will receive $25,200 to train 12 employees and add two jobs.
“These grants are a tremendous resource in the commonwealth for businesses and workers,” Governor Charlie Baker said. “This will create an opportunity for employers to invest in the skills of their workforce in order to address shifts in technology and strengthen their competitiveness in the global economy.”
The state says the grants encourage economic growth in the state by allowing companies to invest in their workforce with additional training. Companies receiving grants often experience savings generated through improved worker productivity, which acts as a catalyst for job growth. State Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Ronald Walker II and John Barros, Boston’s chief of economic development, announced the grants this week in Roxbury. Representatives from Associated Industries of Massachusetts, English for New Bostonians, the Boston Private Industry Council and Massachusetts AFL-CIO joined the event.
“With these grants, we are supporting small businesses in their efforts to upgrade the skills of their workforce and ensure they can grow in order to remain competitive,” Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito said.
The Workforce Training Fund is a program of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. The program is administered by Commonwealth Corporation, a quasi-public state agency that fosters partnerships between industry, education and workforce organizations to strengthen skills for youth and adults.
The Workforce Training Fund provides grants of up to $250,000 to companies of any size in Massachusetts to pay for workforce training over a two-year period. Grants are awarded to projects that will upgrade workers skills, increase productivity and competiveness of Massachusetts businesses, and create additional jobs. Grants are matched dollar-for-dollar by the recipients.
“These grants are a tremendous resource, particularly for small businesses, to invest in their workforce and increase efficiency and productivity by giving workers additional skills,” Walker said. “With the state and the nation facing a skills gap in the workforce, anytime we can provide opportunities for additional training for people, we are helping the economy.”
The grants also offer an opportunity for local businesses to improve communication and productivity at work by providing valuable language training for people whose native tongue is not English, (ESOL).
The Workforce Training Fund awards more than $1 million each month, on a rolling basis throughout the year.