Federal grant to support EV job training program
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The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded a $2 million grant to the Lafayette-based Region 4 Workforce Board to support the newly established Regional Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Partnership, or REV.
REV is a program designed to provide training and support for individuals looking for jobs in the electric vehicle market, particularly the first EV battery manufacturing plant under construction in Kokomo.
Region 4 Board Chief Operations Officer Deb Waymire says the Building Pathways to Infrastructure Jobs grant represents the beginning of funding for the training that will be needed for many years.
“The growth is going to be amazing as we transition to these electric vehicles, and it’s a new set of skills,” Waymire said. “And so that’s our job in workforce development is to ensure people do have the right skills to be able to take advantage of these good paying jobs and this type of a career pathway.”
The REV partnership not only involves the workforce board but also economic development officials, academic institutions, labor groups, and businesses such as StarPlus Energy, the joint venture between Stellantis and Samsung SDI that is now building two multi-billion-dollar EV battery plants in Kokomo.
Waymire said training is expected to start soon as StarPlus has already begun the hiring process for the first EV battery plant, which will bring 1,400 jobs to the area.
“We’re in close contact with Ivy Tech, the Kokomo campus in particular, on the curriculum development,” she said. ” And so just as people are preparing to be hired, or even after they’re hired for on-the-job training, or what we call incumbent worker training, that will be starting very, very soon.”
The REV program will have a focus on targeting unemployed or underemployed individuals and skilling them up into good paying jobs and what Waymire called a “solid career pathway in this new industry.”
But it won’t just be potential workers at the major EV battery plants that can receive assistance through REV. It could also be future employees of suppliers or other EV-related companies that come to the area.
Waymire said the partners involved in the program have been excited to bring new resources to the table to help fill a skills gap that many employers are seeing.
“It’s just a very, very interesting and exciting opportunity to kind of be on the forefront of having this happen,” she said. “Kokomo itself is always in the forefront of so many firsts, and here we are, again, with this first battery plant moving forward to electric vehicles. We’re really just really pleased to be part of that progress.”
But Waymire notes that the $2 million grant will not be enough on its own to support the entire 2,800 people expected to be hired for the two Kokomo plants, or even other plants like the $3 billion facility planned in New Carlisle or the Entek facility in Terre Haute.
She said the DOL grant is just the beginning of the kind of funding that could become available and they will certainly be searching for more.
“Although $2 million sounds like a lot when we want to help skill up 700 people, and yet, in Kokomo itself, they’re looking to hire 2,400 to 3,200 people over the next few years, it’s going to take additional funding to help skill up all those individuals,” she said.
The Region 4 Workforce Board provides workforce development services in Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Howard, Miami, Montgomery, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Warren and White counties.