Memphis wins $6M grant to train medical device workers
The Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce has won a $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to bolster the medical device manufacturing workforce in the Memphis metro area.
GMACWorkforce is one of 23 regional workforce partnerships that competed to win a total of $111 million in grants awarded through President Obama's America's College Promise plan to improve the pipeline of skilled workers in industries such as advanced manufacturing.
In Memphis, the grant will provide education, training, support services and job-placement help for more than 1,000 adults for careers in the medical device manufacturing sector. The Bartlett-based Greater Memphis Medical Device Council has cited a lack of skilled workers as a major issue for growth of medical device manufacturers in the area.
The funds will support the Medical Device Occupations Value Education and Help in the Regional Economy Project (MOVE-HIRE) for four years. Low-income and under-represented people are its focus. Technically, the funds target well-paying jobs filled by foreign workers under the H-1B visa program.
While led by GMACWorkforce's vice president of workforce systems alignment, Pauline Vernon, the grant will involve five area universities and colleges aw will as support from the device council, Workforce Investment Network, Memphis Bioworks, Workbay LLC and the Memphis and Bartlett chambers of commerce.
The federal grant announcement marks the second financial boost in a week for medical device manufacturing training in the area. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission awarded $4 million, while the City of Bartlett and the Haas Foundation have pledged $1 million each, for a Tennessee College of Applied Technology satellite campus in Bartlett for a training center focused on producing skilled machinists and other skilled workers needed by more than 47 medical device companies in the area.
GMACWorkforce was created in 2014 by the Chairman's Circle of the Greater Memphis Chamber and the Memphis and Shelby County Regional Economic Development Plan and includes Shelby County and eight surrounding counties in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi.
