Pork Barrel Training in MA

Date: Monday, February 03, 2003 4:00 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

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H-1B training money comes from the $1,000 fee that companies pay to
sponsor H-1B visas. The money is ladled out to tech schools that claim
they will give American workers the skills to compete against the H-1Bs
that took their jobs. These training programs are "feel good" projects
that will not help unemployed Americans to get their jobs back. That's
because Americans aren't losing jobs because they lack skills or
training, they lose jobs because the cheap young blood of indentured
H-1Bs is more appealing to employers. Employers will continue to
replace American workers with H-1B visa holders as long as they are
perceived to be cheaper and more loyal (indentured).

Commonwealth Corporation Project Manager, Alan Marden was very proud
that every penny of their $2,003,164 allotment from the H-1B training
fund was spent. They also spent $784,246 donated by General Dynamics.
The crowd he talked too broke out into laughter but I'm not sure the
author of this article understood the punch line. The real joke is that
only three people got jobs after their training so each job cost almost
1 million dollars. Now that's something to laugh about!

Their "success" involved training 2,359 people for 28,387 hours of
instruction. That means that each person got about 12 hours of
training. Are we supposed to believe that some unemployed techies armed
with 12 hours of training are going to take jobs back from H-1Bs? It
seems that the only ones getting rich from the training fees are the
schools that manage to get millions of dollars from the federal
government. The stench of scandal gets worse if you consider who is
thanked for doling out the pork: Sens. John F. Kerry and Edward M.
Kennedy.

Donna Roberts did a good job of reporting the facts but didn't stop to
analyze what it all meant. Unfortunately too many reporters can't see
the forest for the trees and they don't seek expert opinion before
writing these articles. She can be reached at
droberts@thetranscript.com and letters to the editor can be sent to
news@thetranscript.com.

http://www.thetranscript.com/Stories/0,1413,103~9054~1154856,00.html

North Adams Transcript

$2M jobs program deemed a success
By Donna Roberts
North Adams Transcript

Monday, February 03, 2003 - PITTSFIELD -- Two years and $2 million
later, the Berkshire County Regional Employment Board Inc. has
successfully completed its H-1B Technical Skills Training program to
boost the county's skilled labor force.

The purpose of the program was to train employed and unemployed
residents in the county in technical skills. The training sessions
began in 2000, after receiving $2,003,164 from the United States
Department of Labor in October.

A 25 percent match was required to obtain the grant, and General
Dynamics Defense Systems contributed $784,246, or a 39 percent match.
Daniel Baker was the program manager for the GDDS, and provided staff
services to the project.

The BCREB held a press conference Friday afternoon at 1 Fenn St. to
inform the county of the program's goals and results.

BCREB Vice-president Doug McNally said the mission of the grant was to
develop a skilled labor force in technology to drive the economy in
Berkshire County, which is currently in hard times.

"Folks were willing to look beyond themselves and work for a greater
good," he said. "This is an example of a model that can lead to
continuous growth in the community."

Originally, the BCREB expected about 1,300 workers to participate in
the program; the final total by the end of the program was 2,359. And
while the board hoped to rope in seven small companies, they ended up
with 37 of all different sizes.

Commonwealth Corporation Project Manager Alan Marden said they tallied
up 28,387 hours of instruction and learning, with 128 courses offered.
The training categories consisted of Software Design Engineering,
Systems Design and Integration Engineering, Hardware Design
Engineering, and Accelerated Engineering Application.

"And at the beginning of this, the cost started at $2,090 per student,"
he said. "But we had so many workers that it got down to $1,192 per
student."

As for the $2 million, Marden said he was happy to report to the
laughter of the crowd, "We spent it all! We're not giving anything back
to Washington."

BCREB Executive Director Heather Boulger said they were one in 11
regions in the nation to undergo the H-1B training, which would help to
fill labor gaps in the more high-skilled professions.

"The Berkshire County economy is changing from a primarily traditional
manufacturing base to technology-based," she said. "Engineering jobs
have grown over 25 percent recently and computer-related jobs have
grown anywhere from 60 to 120 percent."

This program, she said, offered hands-on, state-of-the-art training to
many employers and employees.

Robert Adams, general manager of The Advocate/Boxcar Media, agreed. He
said numerous companies, no matter their size, were able to utilize
this program.

"This is keeping jobs here in Berkshire County rather than looking
outside for expertise," he said. "If the opportunity arises again we'd
like to be a part of it."

Michael Dondiego, senior lead engineer of General Dynamics Advanced
Information Systems, said the course feedback has been "uniformly
excellent."

Jonathan Raymond, president of the Commonwealth Corporation, said this
program could help improve the education and training of future
employees.

"New relationships and new ways of doing business will survive beyond
this grant funding," he said.

This prompted the question of gathering concrete data to test the
success of this training. McNally said an evaluation committee has been
monitoring the grant throughout its run, and is currently discussing
follow-up studies to conduct.

Boulger added they intend to "re-connect" with the workers and
employees who participated in the program for the next eight to 10
months, to discuss any positive increases in production or salary.
Marden said they are aware of three instances so far of people who have
been hired after this training.

The BCREB also thanked several politicians for their support, including
Sens. John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy, U.S. Rep. John Olver, state
Sen. Andrea Nuciforo, D-Pittsfield, and state Reps. Daniel E. Bosley,
D-North Adams, and Peter J. Larkin, D-Pittsfield.

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