Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders joins Arkansas economic development leaders for an announcement in Little Rock on Nov. 14, 2024. Left to right: Sanders; Cody Waits, executive director of Arkansas Workforce Connections; Mike Rogers, the state’s chief workforce officer; Secretary of Commerce Hugh McDonald. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
Arkansas economic leaders on Thursday announced that 19 organizations, primarily colleges and universities, would receive a share of $48 million in grant funding to target workforce training programs.
The grants — available through Track 2 of the Higher Industry Readiness through Educational Development (HIRED) program — are distributed by the state Department of Commerce and Workforce Connections. Federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act funded most of the grants announced Thursday, though three organizations also received funds through Track 1, which the state regularly allocates through the Workforce Initiative Act of 2015.
Secretary of Commerce Hugh McDonald said during his opening remarks that committing the funds signifies the start of more work to come. He thanked Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders for her efforts to prioritize workforce development.
“We’ve come a long way in two years,” McDonald said. “We’ve got a long way to go.”
Addressing a room full of organization leaders, Sanders touted Arkansas’ job growth and a collaboration between the public and private sector that she said is vying to build a workforce to support the state’s fastest growing industries, such as lithium, steel production and aerospace and defense manufacturing.
Sanders also said the reason she was eager last year to pass the LEARNS Act, a law that made sweeping changes to the state’s education system, was to invest in children’s education so it pays off down the line. The upcoming legislative session in 2025 will focus on expansions in higher education and job training programs statewide, Sanders said.
All but four of the grant recipients announced Thursday were colleges or universities. They were selected from more than 150 interested parties that filed a letter of intent as part of the Request for Proposals (RFP) process.
“We’re signing the checks, but we’re counting on you guys to do the work, and we would not be here and this program would not be successful without you,” Sanders said.
Mike Rogers, the state’s chief workforce officer, said recipients were chosen as a business decision, not one made with political or governmental biases.
“It is meeting people where they are,” Rogers said. “It’s transforming lives for rural Arkansas, for metro areas, places of men and women that need the next step of talent recognition and what they can do.”
Expect continued growth in Arkansas, U.S. economies, conference attendees told
Nearly half of the grant funding announced Thursday will go toward the state’s advanced manufacturing sector. Other industry sectors expected to benefit from the funding include information technology, skilled trades, precision agriculture and emerging technologies.
“It is our job to influence and guide and share and cast a vision of what they’ve been created for — to be able to manifest a way that they can break down so many cycles of poverty, incarceration, mental health, of substance and suicide,” Rogers said. “It comes through the way that meaningful work is celebrated.”
Arkansas State University in Jonesboro received the highest single grant amount, $7.5 million, to focus on steel production. Neighboring Mississippi County boasts the second-largest capacity for steel production in the nation, according to the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
In total, the Arkansas State University System was awarded $10.5 million across three campuses.
“We are very pleased that Gov. Sanders and the Department of Commerce have pledged $7.5M toward our proposed workforce development partnership with ASU-Newport and Arkansas Northeastern College in Blytheville,” ASU Chancellor Todd Shields said in a statement. “Together, we will create programs designed to advance three major sectors of our local economy: advanced automated manufacturing, food technology and processing, and steel production.”
“Collaboration between higher education, local industry and community leaders is a powerful force for innovation and growth,” Shields continued. “It creates opportunities that fuel economic vitality and a brighter future for everyone.”
Sanders noted that the funding will allow Northeast Arkansas residents to grow up, go to school and find a “great paying job” all close to home. The grants prioritize existing industries that ensures children today can work the same jobs as their parents in decades to come, she said.
All funding announced Thursday must be spent by Dec. 31, 2026, per federal requirements.
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