For Information Contact:

Ralph J. Eannace, Jr
798-5800

High Technology Training Grant

The Workforce Investment Board of Herkimer, Madison and Oneida Counties has received a $319,250 state grant to fund high technology worker training, Gov. George Pataki announced today.

The grant will help retain and create 136 high-paying Mohawk Valley jobs, Workforce Investment Board Executive Director John Holt said.

"Today’s grant and the six local companies that have teamed with us are additional proof that Oneida County’s economic recovery includes high technology jobs," said Oneida County Executive Ralph J. Eannace, Jr. "The Mohawk Valley has many small, growing companies that are in the high tech field or increasingly rely on high technology to compete. This grant will help six of those companies continue to preserve and add jobs. When added to our other high tech employers, the new Air Force Research Lab under construction at Griffiss and the opportunity for a Chip Fab plant in Marcy, we can see the potential of the new important high tech sector of our economy of the 21^st Century."

"We in Oneida County wish to thank the Governor and the New York State Department of Labor for their continued help to our region. New York State’s support of this critical segment of the Upstate economy is an integral part of the partnership that is essential to help our regional recovery," Eannace added. "We thank the governor and the state Department of Labor for this latest assistance."

Companies sharing in the grant, Holt said, are: Fiber Instrument Sales in Whitestown; Net Design in Utica; Oneida Research Services in Whitestown and three employers based at Rome’s Griffiss Park – Dart Communication, the New York State Technology Enterprise Corp. (NYSTEC) and Cathedral Corp. Collectively, they have promised to create 42 jobs and retain 94 jobs.

"I want to thank County Executive Eannace for bringing these companies together to work with us on our latest high technology effort," Holt said, noting that the partnership formed in this grant began months ago when employers responded to Eannace’s invitation to plan a coordinated effort to attract and retain employees in high technology jobs.

The grant will match employer spending in training programs employers have identified as necessary for their increased growth or productivity.

"This grant will help these companies attract more high tech workers, better-trained high tech workers and multi-skilled workers who can increase productivity," Holt said. "Grant money will be used for training new hires and existing workers so they can move to higher-skilled and higher-paying positions. One critical part of this grant is our ability to help incumbent workers increase their skills and earnings. That helps them and their families, but it also helps employers retain their workers."

The region also gains, Holt said, because an available and trained high technology workforce is a prerequisite for economic success in the years to come.

"As we build our high technology workforce, we can attract more and more employers. That momentum will feed on itself as we keep up our efforts to enhance our workforce," Holt said.

Holt said the grant addresses skill gaps employers identified, and marks another cooperative effort that brings area employers together.

"We applied as a consortium. Instead of employers competing, they are working together through the Workforce Investment Board and the Working Solutions consortium. In this grant, we are seeing again the fruits of cooperation," he said.

New York State Department of Labor projections through 2007 estimate a 97 percent increase in the numbers of systems analysts needed in the Mohawk Valley; a 67 percent increase in computer engineers; 41 percent increase in computer support specialists and 40 percent increase in engineering, math and science managers.

"These are also high-paying jobs," Holt said. "The latest salary figures for some of our computer engineers and engineering managers show that those jobs pay more than $60,000 a year in our region."

"This grant is proof that we are working to attract the best jobs we can to this region, and then working just as hard to retain them," Eannace said. "This is another reason to have confidence in our local economic development and workforce development efforts."

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