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Federal grant to pay half of shale-training costs
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Trumbull County One-Stop office has a new grant available to help people get on-the-job training in the shale-gas and oil industry.
Bim Turner, administrator for Trumbull County’s federal Workforce Investment Act programs, said the grant through the U.S. Department of Labor will provide half of the wages over three months while a person trains.
The program targets unemployed individuals, dislocated workers, already employed workers, low-income workers and youth. Preference will be given to veterans and spouses of some veterans.
The program will provide reimbursement of half of the wages ranging from $10.87 per hour to $19.66 per hour over three months or 520 hours.
The program requires that the employer hire and retain the worker at the end of the training period.
Among the types of workers that can qualify are those who drill wells and get them started, as well as workers who tend to the wells afterward, Turner said.
Turner said there is no cap on the number of people who can access the funds. Turner said the grant is large enough to accommodate the workers here who will use it.
The program will run now through June 30, 2013.
Turner said anyone interested in the program can apply through the Trumbull County One-Stop Office at Trumbull County Job and Family Services, 280 N. Park Ave., Warren.
The grants also can be accessed by employers, who then can contact One-Stop, Turner said.
This is not the first shale-gas training program offered locally, Turner said, adding that Trumbull Career and Technical Center has offered classes and Eastern Gateway Community College is also preparing to offer one.
The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 provides funding for training to assist workers and employers. The programs are designed and managed at the local level.
The first horizontal gas well in Trumbull County using horizontal fracturing is expected to be drilled in the coming weeks between Warren-Sharon Road and state Route 82 in Vienna Township just south of Warner Road.
British Petroleum recently signed mineral-rights leases with 2,000 Trumbull County residents covering 84,000 acres of land with expectation of beginning drilling operations early in 2013. The company paid $331 million. The property owners were represented by The Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley.
Several other gas and oil companies are also purchasing mineral rights and preparing to drill in the area’s Utica Shale.