Biomedical device manufacturer Ventana Medical Systems recently received nearly half a million dollars in grant money from the Arizona Job Training Program to train 400 of its Oro Valley employees. The program, run by the Arizona Department of Commerce, dispensed more than $1 million last year to help bioscience companies like Ventana train existing and incoming employees, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
Paid for by a statewide payroll tax, the job-training grants reimburse local companies for 75 percent of training expense for new workers, and up to half the training cost of existing workers.
State officials seeking ways to draw high-paying, “knowledge-economy” jobs to the Valley consider the grant program a good recruitment incentive, according to Natascha Hebell-Fernando, who manages the Commerce Department’s bioscience-related economic development efforts.
“It’s a very important tool to offer companies the chance to get their employees ready,” Hebell-Fernando told the Star.
This is the second job-training grant Ventana has received from the state; in 2002, it was awarded as similar grant of $585,000.
For more information:
“Ventana among firms getting state training funds,” Arizona Daily Star, 01/06/2005