UMOS has successfully competed for and was awarded two grants: “TechHire” from the U.S. Department of Labor and “Transitional Jobs” from the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF).
Tech Hire-$4 million- UMOS was awarded a H-1B TechHirePartnership Grant. UMOS is establishing the Eastern Wisconsin TechHire Collaborative in partnership with The Milwaukee Institute and College of Menominee Nation. “This partnership with College of Menominee Nation and The Milwaukee Institute is historic for us,” states Lupe Martinez, President and Chief Executive Officer, UMOS. “We look forward to a fruitful relationship with our new partners on this and other collaborative projects.”
Other TechHire partners include Spotted Eagle, Bay Area Workforce Development Board, Schneider, Advanced Wireless, and Marcus Corporation.
The Collaborative will train young adults, ages 17 to 29 that have barriers to training and employment, for careers in software applications development. The geographic areas to be served are Brown, Door, Manitowoc, Menominee, Milwaukee, Outagamie, Shawano, and Sheboygan Counties in Wisconsin.
In announcing the grant awards at yesterday’s press conference, Mayor Barrett said the push for computer and information technology training comes as jobs in Milwaukee’s manufacturing industry dwindles, and opportunities in technical fields open up. Employ Milwaukee also received a $4 million grant.
Transitional Jobs-$2.3 million-UMOS was awarded $1,040,750 to provide workforce development services in Racine County and $1,267,980 to partner with the Menominee Nation in northern Wisconsin. “We are excited about the opportunity of this expanded program outside of Milwaukee as we assist job seekers in the urban southeast and the rural northeast counties of Forest, Langlade, Menominee and Florence,” says Tina Koehn, Vice President, who will oversee the administration of the two grants. “We look forward to doing our part to help the residents of Wisconsin…. work.”
UMOS also operates a similar DCF funded Transform Milwaukee Jobs Program in partnership with Milwaukee Urban League, Northcott Neighborhood House and Silver Spring Neighborhood Center.
Both the Tech Hire and Transitional programs are performance-based contracts.
