Skill UP Indiana! grants fund regional career preparedness in Region 8

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s second cycle of the Skill UP grant program recently awarded 12 partnerships across the state with a total of $7.7 million. The grant program awards funds to business, education, workforce and economic development entities that serve areas of at least 200,000 people. The money, met with a minimum 25 percent private match, will go toward developing training and education programs that align with employer needs to fill the one million jobs projected to be available in the next decade.

“Skill UP grants enable regional partnerships to enhance skill attainment in the local workforce that meets employer demand for high-skilled employees both now and into the future,” said Steven J. Braun, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, in a news release. “The positive results from the first Skill UP grant cycle are already being realized in communities throughout Indiana, and this second group of grantees will engage even more students and incumbent workers in career- and skill-development opportunities.”

The Regional Opportunities Initiative and the Workplace Simulation Project Plus were two such partnerships to receive grant money in Economic Growth Region 8, which includes Monroe, Brown, Owen, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Daviess and Orange counties.