By Stephanie Gattman, Truth Staff
sgattman@etruth.com
Retraining grants for displaced RV workers are targeted toward employees of specific plants, not every RV worker or supplier who has been laid off since July.
So if you look at the numbers, the state is reaching between 25 percent and 30 percent of eligible workers with Employee Training Grants, a national emergency grant program.
According to Marc Lotter, communications director for the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, only those who have been permanently laid off since July 1 from the following plants are eligible to participate in the retraining grant program through the U.S. Department of Labor:
* Dutchmen Manufacturing in Goshen
* Fleetwood in Decatur
* Keystone RV in Goshen
* All Monaco Coach plants
* Newmar in Nappanee
* Pilgrim International in Middlebury
* Sundowner Trailers in Elkhart
The state has applied to the labor department to expand the emergency grant to employees laid off from these plants, Lotter said:
* Fleetwood in Crawfordsville
* Flexsteel in New Paris
* Jayco in Middlebury
* Integra Coach in Wakarusa
* Starcraft RV in Topeka
"We can continue to go back and continue to add new (plants) as necessary," Lotter said.
The stipulation in the grant is that the recipient must receive a credential, associate degree, certificate "or something that will assist that person transition into a high-demand job," Lotter explained.
They can get up to $6,000 for tuition, books and fees, and money for support services such as child care and transportation. Recipients also have other DWD services available to them, including resume building and computer skills development.
Almost 1,000 people are participating in the retraining program, which has $10.4 million. Lotter said between 3,000 and 4,000 people qualify.
Not everyone who is eligible is taking advantage of the program, Lotter said. He said someone might not have the ability or interest in participating in retraining, or they might want to find a job in a similar field. "They might not have the ability to make the time commitment to be able to do that," Lotter said. "I think there could be many reasons why someone were to choose or were not to choose to seek that additional training."
Ivy Tech Community College is one of the institutions training displaced workers. Purdue and Vincennes universities also have programs, but Lotter explained that workers can use their individual training account anywhere they can meet the criteria for the grant. Gov. Mitch Daniels announced the grants at Ivy Tech in Elkhart in August, and Lotter said Ivy Tech has a "great majority" of the workers.
In conjunction with the emergency grant, the state paid $750,000 to Ivy Tech to expand a facility and program in Warsaw, Lotter said.
That facility, which will open later this month, will serve as an orthopedic and advanced manufacturing training center, according to Tracie Davis, executive director of marketing and communications for Ivy Tech's North Central Region. It was planned prior to the layoff announcements, she said.
Ivy Tech has 50 academic programs in the North Central Region, 20 noncredit training programs and about 40 other options in different varieties, Davis said.
"We can provide these programs for anyone, not just displaced workers," she said. "This is what we do. This is what we have done since we started as a college."
She said RV workers began coming to Ivy Tech two years ago for retraining on their own.
Davis said there isn't a resource concern about providing training to displaced workers. "When a student has gone through the WorkOne process, we are ready to start working with them," she said. "Once the student comes to us having completed the WorkOne process, we will get them started immediately. There is no waiting list."
As of mid-December, about 350 displaced workers indicated they were taking classes through Ivy Tech or would begin this semester. An updated number was not available Thursday.
One of the popular programs at Ivy Tech is medical assisting, which is offered in Elkhart, Warsaw and South Bend.
"We're just one of the providers," Davis said. "We certainly are on the team, but students aren't required to use us for training."
Other programs are available for those who don't qualify for the emergency grant program, Lotter indicated. "There are many other things out there," he said.
Anyone interested in any of the programs should come to a WorkOne office and take the skills and occupational interest assessment to see what they might be eligible for.
Workers eligible for the emergency grant program will work with a WorkOne staffer on occupational goals and an employment plan to reach those goals. Then they are fit into an occupational training program.
Davis said when layoffs were announced, Ivy Tech staff increased their hours at WorkOne offices in the region.