Northwood Technical College announced its involvement in a $10 million Workforce Innovation Grant project supported by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) on Thursday.
The federal American Rescue Plan Act funds the RESTORE (Restoring Employment via Support, Training, Outreach, Recruitment, and Education) programme. During a press conference on Tuesday, Dec. 14, Gov. Evers revealed the beneficiaries of the three-year award. Out of 130 total applicants, the proposal lead by Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC) was chosen as one of the final 12 to receive award funds.
According to the WEDC website, the Workforce Innovation Grant Program’s goal is to “financially support collaborative, sustainable, and innovative pandemic-recovery plans developed by regional organizations” in order to help Wisconsin’s regions address and solve the critical workforce shortage in the manufacturing industry.
Northwood Tech, CVTC, Bloomer High School, Osseo-Fairchild High School, St. Croix Central High School (SCC), Processed Metals Innovators, and the West Central Wisconsin Workforce Development Board will spend a total of $9,999,614 in financing (WCWWDB).
The RESTORE project’s model, as part of this collaboration, develops multi-purpose training centers and mobile labs to be integrated into rural Wisconsin for high schools and employers to use for manufacturing-related training centers and to assist in workforce rebuilding following the COVID-19 pandemic. The St. Croix Valley Manufacturing Outreach Center at SCC will be one of these training centers, thanks to a portion of the $3,815,972 award, of which Northwood Tech was a sub-recipient. Bloomer and Osseo-Fairchild High Schools will also have manufacturing training facilities.
