NOTE: PPL was among 25 agencies to propose Pathways Out of Poverty and will act as a jobs service provider, largely for PPL Industries trainees working in the Second Chance Recycling division:
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
by Chris Newmarker Staff Writer
The city of Minneapolis will receive $4 million from the federal government to provide green-jobs training to the underprivileged around the Twin Cities.
The grant, announced Wednesday by the U.S. Labor Department, was part of $150 million in “Pathways out of Poverty” grants distributed nationally. The money comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that Congress passed last year. In the Twin Cities, it will be spent on jobs training for people living in poverty, veterans and unemployed young adults who don’t have a high school diploma.
“These Pathways Out of Poverty grants will help workers in disadvantaged communities gain access to the good, safe and prosperous jobs of the 21st-century green economy,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in a news release.
“Green jobs present tremendous opportunities for people who have the core skills and competencies needed in such well-paying and rapidly growing industries as energy efficiency and renewable energy.”
The Labor Department plans to spend a total of $500 million in economic-stimulus cash to fund work-force development projects that prepare workers for careers in energy-efficiency industries.
Last week, a Minneapolis-based partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations received $5 million under the same initiative. The Blue Green Alliance, launched in 2006 by the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club, will spend the $5 million in job-training money across much of Minnesota.