The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) has provided grant funding several times through the Minnesota Jobs Skills Partnership (MJSP) to help a Minnesota employer train its rapidly growing workforce.
DEED MJSP provided a $200,000 Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP) grant to Advanced Volumetric Alliance (AVA) in Albertville in early 2023 to train 44 workers in newly created jobs. The company had recently built a 180,000 square foot manufacturing plant where they expect to soon be employing a total of 130 workers.
AVA designs, engineers, and manufactures full volumetric modular units. AVA leaders say that the JTIP grant helped them exceed their hiring goals and fully execute the training objectives allowing them to meet and exceed their timelines to scale production on the manufacturing floor. AVA representatives also said the JTIP grant helped them better define and refine their OJT program and commit to extra hours of training which helped new hires more quickly establish competency and a comfort level working with existing employees which they believe has resulted in greater employee engagement and retention.
AVA also received a $200,000 JTIP grant in 2022, providing training for 42 new employees, and received a $20,000 Automation Training Incentive Program (ATIP) grant in November 2023 to train 27 employees on new software to automate the process flow between design, quality, production, and shipment of modules.
AVA recently participated in the 18th Annual Veterans Career on May 1 as a Premier Exhibitor. CareerForce Veterans Services co-sponsored that event. AVA has been featured in CareerForce blog posts in the past as a veteran-friendly employer.
