(HOBOKEN) – Assemblyman Ruben Ramos and Assemblywoman Caridad Rodriguez on Thursday applauded the awarding of a $148,000 training grant by the New Jersey Department of Labor to help residents in the 33rd Legislative District improve their workforce skills.
“This is great news for our residents,” said Ramos (D-Hoboken). “Given the current economic climate, creating a more skilled workforce built around our most viable markets is key to helping our residents find real, lasting employment. With our unemployment rates still hovering around 10 percent, I want to thank the administration for recognizing the importance of investing in workforce development and job training.”
The grant has been awarded to Stevens Institute of Technology, which will provide $217,109 in matching funds to help deliver workforce training to 390 individuals in the areas of quality control, enterprise reDest planning, business administration, and business communication within the healthcare and bioscience sector.
“This is welcome news for the residents in our district struggling to find employment,” said Rodriguez (D-West New York). “It’s also welcome news for residents struggling to keep up within industries that are constantly changing and evolving. With this type of specialized training, they will be able to learn valuable skills to help maintain an edge in today’s competitive workforce.”
The Customized Training and Literacy Training grants are funded by the state’s Workforce Development Partnership Program. Customized Training grants provide training geared to the specific needs of each business. Workplace Literacy Training helps incumbent workers improve vital workplace skills in basic computer applications, mathematics and measurement, verbal, written, and customer service communications, and English as a second language.
Individual businesses or consortia of businesses led by educational institutions, non-profit organizations, trade associations and labor unions are eligible to apply for grants on an on-going basis.
