State announces $1.2 million in job-training grants

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this week that $1.2 million in job-training grants is still available to businesses that hire long-term, unemployed New Yorkers.

This effort is part of a campaign to help individuals, who have been out of work for 26 weeks or longer, connect to available jobs in their region, the governor’s office said in a news release.

To date, more than 600 businesses have taken advantage of about $8.2 million in on-the-job training incentives to hire more than 1,200 individuals across the state, Cuomo’s office said.

The state is also starting to conduct outreach efforts to help New Yorkers who have been unemployed for 26 weeks or longer to find employment assistance.

The New York State Department of Labor will send an email to those New Yorkers containing a simple survey that the state will use to help tailor job-search services for each individual who responds and to invite the respondents to one of the 96 state career centers for these personalized services.

Cuomo’s office provided some testimonials on how one career center helped both an employer and a job seeker.

The NEG/OJT Grant has been a “great” benefit to Dielectric Laboratories, Linda McKay, human-resources manager and facility-security officer for Dielectric Laboratories, Inc. in Cazenovia, said in the news release.

NEG/OJT is short for On-the-Job Training National Emergency Grant.

Dielectric Laboratories has partnered with Working Solutions, a one-stop career center located in Oneida that is part of the Workforce Investment Board of Herkimer, Madison and Oneida Counties. 

“As an employer in Madison County, we have had some difficulties finding the right candidates for open positions. Working Solutions has been a good partner in locating the right candidates,” McKay said in the release. “The most challenging portion of any new hire is the amount of time and cost to train a new employee. The grant has been a tremendous help with the cost of training and we’ve been fortunate that the employees we have hired are still employed with us today and we expect they will be long term employees. Dielectric will continue to partner with Working Solutions as our business grows.”

At the same time, a manager at a Utica company is crediting the Herkimer office of Working Solutions for helping him find new work. 

Lance Bennett, facilities manager at Human Technologies Corporation in Utica, had been unemployed for four months after his working life ended abruptly.

“Having been employed for the past 40 years, I was not expecting my position to be eliminated suddenly from my previous employer,” Bennett said in the news release.

He registered with Working Solutions in Herkimer, which provided him personal assistance and a chance to attend workshops in his pursuit of new employment.

Human Technologies Corp. eventually offered Bennett his current position.

 “The staff at HTC were very helpful in providing me with training and giving me the tools to make a smooth transition back into the workforce,” Bennett said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com