Carol Johnson, Southern Indiana Business Report
BEDFORD — Over the next 10 years, more than one million jobs must be filled in Indiana. To help Hoosier employers fill these jobs, Indiana is offering grants to employers to reimburse them for training, hiring and retaining new or current full-time workers.
The Next Level Jobs Employer Training Grant was created to help fill in-demand positions within six priority sectors: Advanced Manufacturing; Technology and Business Services;
Transportation and Logistics; Health and Life Sciences; Building and Construction; and
Agriculture. The grant will reimburse employers up to $5,000 per employee who is trained,
hired, and retained for six months. The grant allows up to $50,000 per employer.
The statewide program, administered by the Department of Workforce Development, has been around for about seven years but is gaining momentum as more employers see the benefits, said Susan Neal, Executive Director of WorkOne Operations in Region 8, which includes Brown, Daviess, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Orange and Owen counties.
“When employers realize you have funding to help with their workforce, word of mouth spreads pretty quickly,” Neal said.
The training grant can apply to a number of situations. For example, a company may have new or current employees who need training to advance their job skills or a business might need to train employees on new equipment. Neal said another benefit of the grant program is many industries are seeing their employee retention improve after completing the training.
To be eligible:
- Employers must pay new hires a minimum of $17 an hour or provide a 3% increase to
current employees - The business must be registered with the Indiana Secretary of State’s office and have a
current account for State Unemployment Tax Assurance (SUTA) account - Have a physical location in Indiana
The forecast of needing to fill one million jobs is driven by the retirement of baby boomers and the state’s labor-force participation rate. A state’s labor-force participation rate is defined as the percentage of the population that is either working or actively looking for work. Indiana’s rate is 62.4%, which is on par with the national rate of 62.5%.
Indiana is not unique in facing the challenge of a worker shortage. According to an analysis by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the US currently has 9.5 million job openings but only 6.5 million unemployed workers.
Neal said, “If efforts to recruit more workers into the labor force aren’t enough, employers will have to upskill the workers they have and that is where the Employer Training Grant plays an important role.”
How to apply
There is a limited amount of funding for the grants, so employers are encouraged to apply soon. To access and complete the online application and learn more about the grant, go
to: https://www.in.gov/dwd/business-services/etg/.