Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - December 30, 2004
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136
Alt Contact:  Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, 360-664-4232

Gov. Gary Locke Awards $300,000 for Workforce Development

OLYMPIA – Dec. 30, 2004 – Gov. Gary Locke today announced he is awarding $300,000 to local workforce development councils and their local partners to further improve workforce development in the state. The funds are from the Governor’s Discretionary portion of the federal Workforce Investment Act state allocation.

“Our state’s 12 workforce development councils are working hard to raise the level of worker training and education in this state to meet employers’ needs, and they are succeeding,” Locke said. “They exceeded their targets (both state and federal) in several categories last year, and the money being awarded will go toward projects that will further our goal of a highly skilled workforce for Washington state.”

Awards are as follows:
Olympic (includes Clallam, Kitsap, and Jefferson counties) $18,863
Pacific Mountain (includes Grays Harbor, Mason, Lewis, Thurston, and Pacific counties) $29,348
Northwest (includes Whatcom, Skagit, Island, and San Juan counties) $17,237
Snohomish (Snohomish County) $29,832
King (King County) $45,227
Pierce (Pierce County) $36,878
Southwest (includes Cowlitz, Wahkiakum, Skamania, and Clark counties) $25,494
North Central (includes Chelan, Okanogan, Grant, Douglas, and Adams counties) $31,729
Tri-County (includes Yakima, Kittitas, and Klickitat counties) $35,403
Eastern (includes Ferry, Pend Oreille, Garfield, Stevens, Columbia, Lincoln, Whitman,
Asotin, and Walla Walla counties) $13,438
Benton-Franklin (Benton and Franklin counties) $ 4,059
Spokane (Spokane County) $12,492

Awards are given to workforce areas for high performance in categories such as employment, job retention, earnings gain, and customer satisfaction for adults, displaced workers and youth. Award amounts depend on whether the workforce areas exceeded their targets, the amount by which targets were exceeded and the population size of the workforce area.

The awards are determined by the state Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board and administered by the state’s Employment Security Department.

Related link: www.wtb.wa.gov

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