Grants help business pay for employee training at TMCC

The Workforce Development and Continuing Education Division of Truckee Meadows Community College long has developed courses on behalf of employers in the region.

Now the division is paying increased attention to finding ways that state and federal grants can help employers pay for much of the cost of training.

"Based on the preliminary information we glean from a business,we can let a company know if it may be a candidate for a federal or state grant and refer them to the appropriate agency," said Deb O'Gorman, director of the workforce development division's customized training."Through the entire grant application process, we work with both the business and the agency to plan a training budget and act as a resource at commission hearings."

Gayle Litov, Alere Medical, Inc.'s human resources director, first met with TMCC officials during the company's application process for a state grant to discuss course topics, the number of classroom hours needed to teach each subject and instruction costs.

The company won a grant, approved by the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, that provides Alere's employees with training in leadership and employee motivation, effective communication, customer service, sales training, time management, workplace diversity, stress management and Spanish skills, among other topics.

Litov said a course on sales principles, which was game-based,was well received by employees.

The course was taught at Alere's offices in south Reno.

Alere was the recipient of a Train Employees Now grant, funded through the state government, which targets relocating and expanding businesses.

TMCC's workforce development division refers businesses that may qualify for the training grants to the Economic Development Authority of Northern Nevada.

EET, Inc., a Reno-based contract manufacturer, also received a state training grant and customized training through the workforce training division of TMCC.

Elizabeth Duffrin, chief financial officer of EET, said the grant allows the company to provide courses in soldering, lean manufacturing, electronic schematics, problem-solving, Spanish and other subjects to its employees.

"We were able to design courses that target our specific business needs,"Duffrin said.

"The instructors taught the Spanish course on-site in our training room at a time that is most convenient for our employees.

I would recommend customized training because of the flexibility of scheduling and the individualized curriculum."

Customized training courses are built around each specific company's needs.

One business, for instance,wanted its employees to learn Excel.

The TMCC workforce development program incorporated the business' unique spreadsheets into each lesson, so that employees not only learned Excel, but became more familiar with features of the company's spreadsheets.

Another business needed its supervisors to overcome the language barrier with their Spanish-speaking employees.After meeting with the employer, TMCC built the training to bridge the specific barriers and created vocabulary worksheets with language terms that related specifically to that business.

(To see if your business may qualify for a training grant or to learn more about TMCC's customized training programs, call 824-3811 or e-mail bi@tmcc.edu.)