State to get $25 million from stimulus for job training

Nevada workforce training programs will get a $25 million infusion of cash from the federal stimulus package.

The Board of Examiners voted to accept the money in a special meeting Tuesday.

Director of Administration Andrew Clinger said the money is part of the stimulus unemployment funding and will come in three separate contracts to provide training to adults, young people and adults who have been "dislocated."

That more than doubles the roughly $15 million the state already gets for those programs. Nevada Works in the north and the Southern Nevada Workforce Invest-

ment Board in the south funnel the money to organizations that provide job skills training for workers.

Clinger said the caveat is that those two organizations must spend their money by June 30, 2010. Any money they can't spend by that date reverts to the state. But he said the state can reallocate the money to programs that can spend it by the end of June 2011.

The stimulus package also included language expanding the types of organizations that can get the money and provide training to people who need job skills to qualify for work. The money can be used at universities and community colleges, which hasn't been permitted in the past.

Adult training programs will get $3,392,179, juvenile training programs will receive $7,570,212 and programs for adults who have lost jobs $14,311,733 under the contracts approved Tuesday.

The legislative Interim Finance Committee must approve the decision when it meets on Friday.

- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.