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ATTENTION OHIO EMPLOYERS:
The OH Incumbent Worker Training Voucher Grants Round 4 Submissions Started October 14, 2015! What Now for Latecomers?
 by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations – Eastern U.S. – Proactive Technologies, Inc.
Approximately $20 million in grants were awarded over the last three years by the Ohio Incumbent Worker Training Voucher Program, funded by contributions from the Ohio casinos. The first three rounds of grants targeted critical industries – manufacturing being one of them. A fourth round became available for application building starting September 28th, with a submission start date of 10:00 am ET on October 14th. At that time, those employers submitting the grant application would have the best chance for approval. According to the OH IWT Guidelines, in addition to the quality of the proposed training activities, “funding approvals for this program will be on a first-come, first-served basis.” With over 600 employers being approved each round, anyone submitting an application on October 14th had a better chance of being at the front of the line to have serious consideration before all funds are obligated. ATTENTION LATECOMERS: There is an opportunity for those employers who were not able to conceive a project and prepare an application for grant funding. According to the OH IWT Guidelines,
“Once the training funds are completely committed, the Ohio Development Services Agency will hold subsequent applications in a “queue,” in the event that additional program funds become available.” click here to expand Even though the OH IWT website states that “all funds have been committed,” they will be reviewing the applications for the next 60 days and many applications may be rejected or the amount asked for scaled back, freeing up funds for the late applicants.So if you are still interested, the sooner you get an application submitted, the better your chances are of qualifying for funds either if some committed funds are released, or new funds are added to the program.
This is, by far, the easiest grant money to use and the paperwork, once set up, is relatively easy to comply. Proactive Technologies, Inc. has assisted client-companies to successfully apply for, manage, document and receive reimbursement for almost $2,000,000 in projects in just the last 2 years alone! A substantial amount of that amount was reimbursed to the clients by the state of Ohio to lessen their initial out-of-pocket investment on a project that can lead to maximized results! Click here for more information.
This is a reimbursement program. Once the employer applies and is accepted, the employer completes the approved training and submits the receipts and rosters to the OH IWT. The employer will be reimbursed for 50% of the cost. If the proposed training isn’t held and no cost incurred, the employer simply has nothing to submit. For Round 4 information, visit the OH state’s website click here. |
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Apprenticeships That Make Money? Not as Impossible as it Seems (part 2 of 2)
 Setting Up an Apprenticeship Center
Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
In the September issue of Proactive Technologies Report, I discussed what seemed to be the obvious differences in European and U.S. apprenticeship models in the article “Apprenticeships That Make Money? (part 1 of 1)“. I suggested that visionary U.S. business leaders consider creating a revenue-generating “apprenticeship center” within the organization to cover the costs of the apprenticeship and, in some cases, make money. How could that be accomplished? In continuing the discussion I would like to offer a possible strategy. American manufacturers turned to lower wage labor sources, such as Mexico, China and India, during the last 30 years to lower their production costs in the hope that they would be more profitable. It is now understood that with lower wage costs comes additional supply chain costs which can, if uncontrollable, erase some or all of the gains a lower wage level might offer.
But what if some of the services or operations to manufacture products or sub-assemblies that were, or are to be, off-shored could be done internally – at the labor cost of “training wages” as done in Europe – using equipment that would otherwise have to be idled, sold or shipped? What if those training wages could be furthered reduced by state grants? Could employers find that the source of lower wages is in their own back yard? Although the following approach for determining if an apprenticeship center/cost-reduction center is right for your organization is simple, it should be scalable to any organization with slight modifications. Read More
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Training Workers in a Roller Coaster Economy
Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
Often an afterthought, the need for structured on-the-job training is just as critical during a time of contraction as during a time of expansion. During cutbacks in staffing, work is redistributed to remaining employees as workers with expertise are inadvertently let go. Sometimes more attention is paid to worker seniority and wage levels than the potential loss of the accumulated investment in worker expertise and related replacement costs as a result of hasty workforce reductions.
Unfortunately, selling the need for an investment in a training infrastructure can be a harder sell to management who might be reluctant to make the case for fear of being perceived as being too “spend-happy” rather than seen as appropriately proactive. However, if no consideration is given to such planning that fact will subsequently reveal itself later in the form of transition costs – lost capacity and decreased operational productivity. “How an organization prepares for change determines if they will survive or succumb to it.” It can be said that if the organization was running efficiently before a cutback, worker expertise must have helped since the numbers now show that output and yield have been reduced. If the organization was not running efficiently before the cutback, and cutting workers has little effect on output and yield, perhaps the reason was there was a lack of expertise in running operations. Either way, developing expertise and preserving it through adversity should be seen as worthy goals by any organization. Read more. |
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Certifying and Auditing Workers, Subcontractors
Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
When auditors sample worker performance for compliance with process documents and quality standards, they observe the employee perform the steps of the defined process and watch for accuracy. That is necessary for assuring repeatable quality output.
Yet process documents and references to quality standards do not a training strategy make. Technical documents were never intended to be training materials. Depending on the engineer’s style, they may be too technical or too verbose for the average user. Rarely are technical documents tested for readability (against the reading levels of the intended users) let alone repeatability. The experienced worker who has somehow learned to interpret the process document and fill the gaps of missing information to perform the task as envisioned, has the opportunity to repeat that process in a self-standardized way in lieu of proper training. They retain the best practice through repetition. But new-hires and transfers have different skills and abilities and may not be able to identify and assembly the various bits of information into a coherent, repeatable best practice without guidance and structure. The learning curve may become unnecessarily long and costly. For this among many reasons, structured on-the-job training is critical to efficient process performance and indicative of higher levels of productivity. Read more.
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