Train Your High-Tech Staff on NJ's Tab
by Tracey Porpora

Employees of Alpha Technologies are receiving top-notch, on-the-job training in a variety of areas, including cutting-edge computer technology. While it's not unusual for the 10-year-old Piscataway-based computer consulting company to invest in training for its employees, the bill for this one-year session is being picked up, in part, by the state.

Alpha Technologies is just one of about 3,500 businesses that have taken advantage of the state Department of Labor's Customized Training Program, which fosters company personnel development through state grants. Through the program, the state is paying 15 percent of more than 100 Alpha Technologies employees' salaries, said Jeffrey Weiner, human resource manager for Alpha Technologies.

"In the past, we've always invested extremely heavily in employees, but it's (the training program) definitely helping to offset those costs and helping us better serve our clients. And it gives us the opportunity to offer more training," said Weiner.

The training program, created in 1992, was the result of government trying to keep companies from fleeing New Jersey after the recession of the late 1980s, said Brian Peters, director of business services for the New Jersey Department of Labor (DOL). It allows for a broad range of employee training, from customer service to technology skills, he said.

"We can make workers more competitive by increasing their skill levels and make businesses more competitive by training their existing workers, increasing their skills and reducing the company's cost for doing that," said Peters.

The program allows employees to receive training in their specific fields through local providers, such as colleges. If the situation is such that employees need on-the-job training, the DOL will subsidize a portion of their wages, said Peters.

To qualify for the program, a company must demonstrate "a compelling argument as to why the government should subsidize its program," said Peters. Such "arguments" include the need to upgrade current workforce skills due to the threat of closure, prevention of the loss of jobs and / or to expand operations, said Peters. Companies planning to relocate to New Jersey and startups can also qualify for the program. Employees who take part in the program must earn at least $10 per hour and the training must occur during work hours, he said.

It's important that applying businesses know that the program is not meant to be "an on-going subsidy to the private sector," said Peters. "This is intended to get companies a religion in the sense that they can see the value of investing in their workers," said Peters.

"We want them to see the value in increased productivity, morale and general competitiveness so they will then, on their own, make more investments in employee worker training."

Since the program's inception, the Department of Labor has awarded more than $165 million – taken from New Jersey's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund – to train employees of 3,500 companies. Grants for training have ranged from $5,000 to $6 million, said Peters.

"The state is being very wise and proactive. In technology, the state has realized if you're not in the latest and greatest technologies you'll be gone tomorrow. New Jersey is investing a little today in order to make their money back later," said Weiner.

Initially, the program served mainly the manufacturing industry, which was depressed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said Peters. But throughout the 1990s the program was utilized by a variety of industries from software companies to casinos. Currently, the DOL wants to reach out to technology companies to take advantage of the program, said Peters.

For this reason, the New Jersey Technology Council (NJTC) has launched a technology training network – comprised of the educational institutions that are NJTC members – that will help connect technology companies with program grants, said SaraLee Pindar, director of NJTC's Education Foundation.

The network will organize a series of focus groups with companies and recruiters "to share concerns and ideas about recruitment and training," said Pindar. There will be two regional groups – based in both North and South Jersey – of information technology multimedia companies. Another group will focus on life and environmental sciences, and a fourth group will concentrate on electronic components.

"What we can do for NJTC members is help them to access training and the grants that are available through the New Jersey Department of Labor, and to make them aware of the opportunities out there for non-credit training delivered by the higher education institutions," said Pindar.

The network will foster the formation of consortiums – comprised of small companies or those that have too few people in need of a particular type of training to qualify on its own – to apply for the program, she said. By late summer, Peters said companies will be able to apply for the program online at www.wnjpin.state.nj.us. For more information about the program, call 609-292-2239.