Eastern Washington Gets $744,000 For Ag Training

Seeking to fill a need for skilled work- ers, the U.S. Labor Department has given Eastern Washington $744,000 to develop high-skill agriculture jobs.

The grant, which Labor Secretary Alexis Herman announced Tuesday, is destined for Yakima County, but it likely will affect every county in Eastern Washington. The money will fund a program to train entry-level workers for jobs like operating and repairing machinery, driving forklifts and maintaining the operations in food storage and processing plants.

The program would help about 500 people. Its impacts could reach 18 Eastern Washington counties, Herman said.

“We don’t have a worker shortage,” she said. “But we do have a skill shortage.”

Despite the continuing U.S. economic boom, the Labor Department still believes big employment gaps exist.

“More than 22 million jobs have been created in the last eight years,” Herman said. “But there is so much more that we need to do in towns and communities across the nation today, and Yakima County is no exception.”

The Labor Department gave 14 states a total of $10.2 million in grants. Yakima County’s program was one of 130 applications.

“They rose to the top because of the strength of their proposal,” Herman said.

The need comes from Yakima and Grant county businesses, including Del Monte Corp., Nestle and Snokist Growers.

“The food processing manufacturers in our agricultural sector have reported for some time that they’re having a hard time finding skilled workers,” said Patrick Baldoz, director of Yakima County Employment and Training.

The grant will help create training programs for workers who might not attend community college classes.

“We would be looking at alternative ways of delivering training to folks,” Baldoz said. “You can’t always just hold a class and say, `You all come.”’ Some people who have worked a hard eight- to 10-hour day would find it impossible to then attend an hour or two of classes, he said. Some training might be done at work.

“It’s about how we can best train people what they need to learn,” Baldoz said. “This would ensure that these people would not only have the opportunity to make more money, but that they can have jobs where they have more year-round employment and get benefits.”