Kentuckiana Works Receives Stimulus Grant For Education

About 400 area residents without jobs will be sent back to school with federal stimulus dollars.The workforce development agency Kentuckiana Works has received three million dollars from the federal stimulus package. Executive Director Michael Gritton says the money will be spent to retrain the jobless."This essentially functions like a scholarship so we can pay up to $4,000 a year for a school for them to go to school and then we can give them up to $600 in additional money to pay for books or other supplies they might need to do well in that class," he says.Gritton says the group is looking for people who want to go into fields such as information technology and health care. 3rd District Congressman John Yarmuth says workers with knowledge of those fields will be of high value in the future."Today's workers will account for 2/3 of the workforce in 2020. But that same year, three quarters of workers are expected to work in jobs that don't yet exist. Yesterday's skills will not suffice in tomorrow's economy in America."More scholarship funds could come to the program through grants from the state and federal governments.