The Idaho Department of Labor is seeking proposals for a new labor force training initiative that brings industry and educational institutions together in a partnership designed to enhance the skills of Idaho workers.

Under the initial phase of the Industry Sector Grant program, three two-year grants of up to $1 million each will be made to educational institutions that partner with at least three Idaho businesses to train workers in a target occupation critical to those businesses. The business partners must provide a 25 percent cash match to the department grant, which will come from the industry financed Workforce Development Training Fund.

"These grants are designed to increase employment and wages by providing the kind of training that creates a pool of Idaho workers capable of meeting the demands of high-wage industries," Labor Director Roger B. Madsen said.

The initiative, approved in June by the Idaho Workforce Development Council, is the first major departure in use of the Workforce Development Training Fund since its creation in 1996.

The fund, financed by a 3 percent set-aside of the unemployment insurance taxes paid by businesses, has reimbursed employers for training workers for new jobs or retraining workers who would otherwise be laid off. The fund, which has been Idaho's premier economic development incentive, has trained approximately 20,000 workers for about 200 Idaho companies in the last 17 years. Training reimbursement is provided only for jobs that pay at least $12 an hour and include employer-assisted medical benefits in industries that produce goods or services marketed primarily outside the employers' operating regions.

Grant proposals must include measureable training goals that will be tracked by the department in terms of the number of trained workers who obtain jobs, the number of trained workers who receive pay raises or promotions or the number of trained workers who receive an industry recognized credential or academic credit.

Complete details on the grant initiative including the application format are available online at http://labor.idaho.gov/pdf/wdtf_rfp.pdf.

Grant proposals must be submitted electronically in pdf, or portable document format, to jennifer.hemly@labor.idaho.gov.

The deadline is Sept. 6 at 1 p.m. Pacific Time.