Virginia gets $1.5M advanced manufacturing labor grant

Senator George Allen, along with representatives from the Virginia Biotechnology Association, the Virginia Manufacturers Association, and the Training & Development Corporation, announced October 26 receipt of a significant grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The $1,494,369 grant awarded to the Virginia Biotechnology Association is part of a total $16.8 million nationwide investment by the U.S. Department of Labor for advanced manufacturing job training and economic development. A total of 186 groups applied for funding through the President's High-Growth Job Training Initiative. Only 11 were selected to receive awards. The project, which is the only recipient in Virginia, will be co-led by the Virginia Biotechnology Association, the Virginia Manufacturers Association and Training & Development Corporation, and will create a new employer-validated certification system and an innovative employer-designed training program for advanced manufacturing technicians.

"We have been working with the biotech industry for some time to understand its cutting-edge needs to develop talent," said Emily Stover DeRocco, the assistant secretary of labor for employment and training. "Our commitment to this project will help provide workers with the credentials and skill sets that biotech and advanced manufacturing companies are seeking to ensure high-tech clusters have an educated and prepared workforce."

The private sector companies that are co-investing in the project include Alcoa, Boehringer Ingelheim Chemicals, Eli Lilly, Honeywell, Merck, Micron Technologies, Novozymes Biologicals, Corning, Philip Morris and Qimonda North America.

"This initiative was developed by a design team comprised of top officials from advanced manufacturers across the Commonwealth," said Mark A. Herzog, executive director of the Virginia Biotechnology Association. "These common skill standards, certified by the employers, will be the basis for a new training initiative that will expand the pool of qualified workers for the bioscience and advanced manufacturing industry."

"Given the intensity of demand in our own company – we expect to be hiring 100 people into these positions in the next five years – the project is framed to do two things we need urgently," said Cathy Martin, director of human resources for Boehringer Ingelheim Chemicals. "First, it will create an intensive outreach, recruitment and screening process. Second, it will develop a training system for Virginia that targets precisely the skill sets my company and others like it need in order to stay competitive."

The project will address a major problem facing Virginia's manufacturing sector.

"As many as 100,000 manufacturing employees are reaching retirement age in Virginia in the next few years," said Brett A. Vassey, president and CEO of the Virginia Manufacturers Association. "Employers are facing increasing challenges in hiring sufficient numbers of qualified applicants for technical manufacturing jobs that require strong backgrounds in math and science. Meeting this challenge is a necessity for world-class manufacturing to compete in Virginia."

The proposal, which is intended as a competency-based and systemic solution to the need for highly skilled manufacturing technicians, received strong, bipartisan support from U.S. Senator George Allen, House of Delegates Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, Delegate Kathy Byron, Virginia General Assembly members and Governor Tim Kaine.

"Many companies in Virginia's biotechnology sector have products that are well along in the lengthy process of trials and regulatory approval," said Allen. "These companies are poised to move to the manufacturing stage and this grant will go a long way toward creating the training programs to provide the workers."

In his support for the grant, Governor Kaine said, "The project aims to create a two-level 'Advanced Manufacturing Technician Certification' for entry-level and next-step workers, and to prototype a new, employer-driven training design that focuses on optimally defined content and accelerated delivery."

In addition to the employers, other key partners in the grant application include MdBio (the Maryland biotechnology association), the Virginia Department of Business Assistance, the Virginia Community College System, the Virginia Career Education Foundation, and workforce investment boards for Richmond, the Capital Area, and Northern Virginia. Training & Development Corporation will provide design, technical assistance and project management services to the initiative.

MdBio, the state association for the bioscience industry in Maryland, is also one of the key supporters of the initiative.

"One of the central points of this project is that it is multi-state in scope and driven by the cutting edge needs of our advanced manufacturing employers," said Herzog. "Individual employers can't solve this issue alone and neither can communities in isolation. It will take results-driven collaborations that span regional and state boundaries to be successful."

Novozymes Biologicals, one of the employers backing the initiative, faces significant human resources challenges.

"We are one of the few bio- manufacturing firms in the southwest region of Virginia," said Douglas J. Acksel, director of operations. "We feel that collectively we have a solution that supports many companies using advanced manufacturing methods."

Semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technologies, based in northern Virginia, faces a similar challenge and is fully committed to the initiative.

"Our company has agreed to fully support the development of the training design," said Amy Harris, university relations specialist at Micron Technologies. "This will be a model for the entire nation."

The project will build on prior investments of the Department of Labor, National Science Foundation and other technology-focused training programs in Virginia specializing in certification standards for manufacturing, bio- manufacturing, and accelerated learning programs in math and science. The project will also initiate a regional image campaign to promote public awareness of advanced technology career opportunities.