PROVIDENCE — Four local employers and more than 90 of their employees are benefiting from $320,000 in grants recently awarded by the R.I. Governor’s Workforce Board, according to the R.I. Economic Development Corporation (EDC).
The four companies are Epoch Sleep Centers, Pentair Electronic Packaging, Precision Web Marketing and Workplace Dynamics. EDC said the firms qualified for the grants in March and used the money to hire and train workers for customer service, billing, sales, marketing, engineering and technical support jobs.
Debbi-Jo Horton, president of Workplace Dynamics, a consulting firm, said she hired five new employees thanks to the cushion of support provided by the $24,000 grant her firm received.
“In this economy, it would have been difficult to even hire two employees,” she said. “With our grant, we’re hiring and training high-caliber employees in a short period of time and recouping our cost. It was a huge win for us.”
Steve Stacy, president of Precision Web Marketing, added that his firm hired and trained 15 new account managers using the grant it received.
“We are pleased to award work force training grants to these four Rhode Island companies,” Joe MarcAurele, the board’s chair and president of Citizens Bank Rhode Island, said in a statement.
“The grants awarded through the Governor’s Workforce Board improve the existing skill base of our state’s work force and anticipate the future needs of growing and emerging businesses. These companies are using these grants to invest in the most important aspect of any business — its employees,” MarcAurele said.
Last month, the board awarded roughly $2 million in training grants to 77 companies with a combined total of nearly 6,700 employees.
The 17-member Governor’s Workforce Board, formerly the R.I. Human Resource Investment Council, aims to improve the state’s skills base, anticipate the needs of growing and emerging businesses and encourage collaboration among the state’s employers, educators and economic development entities. Since September 2005, it has made more than $33 million in strategic investments. Additional information is available at www.rihric.com.
