Workforce Training
5% pledge
5% Pledge Program
Under the ETA grant, we have identified a promising new program being developed by the Finger Lakes Advanced Manufacturers’ Enterprise (FAME – part of the Finger Lakes Workforce Investment Board) in collaboration with Monroe Community College. FAME is an industry led sectoral initiative addressing the hiring, training, and pipeline needs of the region’s Advanced Manufacturing companies.
The new program is known as the 5% Pledge Program and has been receiving ETA support from RRPA since April 2015. This program is particularly focused on the long term unemployed in the region. In this program, local optics companies and companies that support the optics industry will be asked to sign up to a program wherein they hire on a temporary basis 5 employees for every 100 full time employees. These employees will be identified by the local WIBs and consist primarily of the long term unemployed or in some cases people just entering the workforce.
Our role is to provide a one-time subsidy to help launch the 5% Pledge Program. In the following years, it is expected the program will either run without subsidies or there may be opportunities for other federal and state support. Additional support for this program is being provided through a grant to FAME.
The innovative workforce training programs being developed by FAME have achieved national attention. Mr. Mike Mandina, president of Optimax Corp. in Rochester, has met with both the U.S. president and vice president to discuss these programs. Consequently the programs are being heralded as examples that will be replicated across the U.S.
For more information please contact:
Eileen M Rucinski
Advanced Manufacturing Career Navigator
(315) 789-3131 ext. 105