COEUR d’ALENE — The Idaho Workforce Development Council’s work directly affects Idaho’s economic future.

The council did that work this week in North Idaho, when members gathered Wednesday for their quarterly meeting at The Coeur d’Alene Resort.

“Our job,” said Tim Komberec, chair of council, “is to find ways to train up more people so that they can have higher paying jobs, higher standards of living and to meet the needs of employers in the state by providing the workforce that we need.”

The council advises Gov. Butch Otter and the State Board of Education on strategies for creating high-quality workforce investment services for the state’s businesses, workers, job seekers and students.

During Wednesday’s meeting, the council created a new subcommittee to look into the best way to spend a $1.3 million federal grant the Idaho Department of Labor received to help fund apprenticeship programs throughout the state.

Workforce Develop-ment Council members also heard during the meeting about some council success stories.

About two years ago, the council approved a Workforce Development Training Fund from the Department of Labor to go to a group of wood products manufacturing companies in North Idaho.

Idaho Forest Group, Potlatch Corporation and Stimson Lumber joined forces with North Idaho College to train members of their workforces in order to obtain certifications and higher wages.

The goal was to train 119 participants, but the program ended up successfully training 135 who all saw a minimum 4 percent wage increase as a result.

“The message we’re trying to give is that we’re good stewards of the funds given and we offer a good return on investments,” said Marie Price, the director for workforce and community education at NIC.

The council board also heard from a few different state agencies about what they are doing to help the people they serve get into the workforce.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare gave a briefing on how it helps people on welfare and food stamps look for and get jobs.

“Hearing from all these wonderful programs here that wanted to know where to get more referrals and find the at-risk youth and displaced workers, we have those workers,” said Lori Wolff, a representative from the Department of Health and Welfare. “We have a lot of those people who are at risk and have employment barriers in front of them and we are struggling to know how to help them get stable employment.”

Wolff suggested taking advantage of her program’s ability to draw down an unlimited amount of federal funding as long as it is first matched by another organization’s funds. She said if companies or schools could provide a certain amount of funding to help people using welfare get jobs, the Department of Health and Welfare could match those funds and a lot more could be accomplished.

“Coordination between state agencies and having Health and Welfare involved… we’ll be able to work the strengths of each group for the common good,” Komberec said. “The ultimate thing is whether you’re on food stamps, welfare, have a disability, or are just a young kid coming out of high school needing work, we’ve got the right people at the table here to coordinate those agencies and ensure they work together.”