Skills & Careers
Massachusetts awarded $6.6 million in Workforce Training Fund Program grants to 543 businesses to train more than 5,200 workers, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration announced Friday, Oct. 23. The employers receiving the larger, competitive grants expect to add 286 jobs over two years, a projection rather than a count of positions already filled.
The money is split between two tracks that work very differently. Most of the businesses are small employers that received quick, course-based reimbursements; a smaller group of 45 employers won multiyear grants built around their own training plans. All of the projected job growth comes from that second group.
The General Program: 45 employers, 2,027 workers
The General Program portion totals $2,681,014 for 45 employers to train 2,027 workers, according to the release, which was issued under the name of Commonwealth Corporation, whose president and chief executive, Molly Jacobson, is quoted alongside state officials. These two-year grants are awarded competitively and range from $10,000 to $200,000 per employer, or up to $220,000 for a consortium. Grantees must put up at least one dollar of their own for every grant dollar they receive.
The award list names 32 grantees, two of them consortia that account for the difference from the 45-employer count. The largest single award, $219,120, went to a BayCoast Bank consortium in the Bristol region to train 468 workers; its members include BayCoast Insurance and BayCoast Mortgage Company in Swansea, Plimoth Trust Company in Plymouth and Priority Funding in Westborough. That consortium also accounts for the largest jobs projection on the list, 50 new positions.
Manufacturers and technical firms dominate the rest of the list. In Central Massachusetts, SCHOTT North America received $174,350 to train 178 workers, Luxottica of America $127,200 for 43 workers, and Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine $142,600 for 84 workers. On the North Shore, Technical Manufacturing Corporation received $184,800 to train 130 workers. Teledyne Benthos on Cape Cod received $170,400 for 130 workers, and Medford Wellington Service Co. in the Greater Lowell region received $197,300 for 82 workers.
Smaller awards reached a printing company, a credit union, an insurance agency, a Boston hotel and food businesses. A consortium led by the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce, joined by nine other Cape Cod chambers, received $58,080 to train 22 workers.
Adding up the per-company projections in the award list gives the 286-job total. The individual figures range from one job at Poly Plating in Hampden County to 50 at the BayCoast consortium, and several grantees, including John Nagle Company and Boston Marriott Copley Place, listed no new-job projection. The release says training under the General Program grants includes English for speakers of other languages, project management, software and information technology, and machine setup and operation.
The Express Program: 498 small businesses
The larger share of the money, $3.97 million, went through the Express Program to 498 businesses with 100 or fewer employees, covering training for 3,200 workers between May 1 and Aug. 31, 2026. The program lets small employers choose from more than 4,500 preapproved courses rather than design their own curriculum. According to the release, those courses covered technology, project management, manufacturing and English language skills.
Because the Express awards cover training that took place over the summer, they mostly reflect work already done rather than new commitments. The release did not list individual Express Program recipients.
How the program is funded
The Workforce Training Fund is paid for by Massachusetts employers through the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, the release said. Since January 2023, the Healey administration says it has awarded nearly $105 million through the program to about 4,000 employers, training more than 86,500 workers.
“Massachusetts businesses need skilled workers to grow,” Healey said in the release. Lauren Jones, the state’s secretary of labor and workforce development, said workforce training is essential to helping employers stay competitive.
What it means for workers
For workers at the funded companies, the grants mean employer-paid instruction in skills such as machine operation, software and English. For job seekers, the 286 projected positions are spread across dozens of employers and two years, so the announcement points to modest, scattered hiring rather than a large single opening.
The award amounts are commitments, and the job figures are employer estimates. The release did not say how the state will track whether grantees hit their hiring projections.
Sources
- Commonwealth Corporation via EIN Presswire, “Governor Healey Announces $6.6 Million to Train More Than 5,200 Massachusetts Workers,” October 23, 2026. https://www.einpresswire.com/article/951873633/governor-healey-announces-6-6-million-to-train-more-than-5-200-massachusetts-workers
Featured photo: The Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill in Boston, photographed Jan. 31, 2018. Representative image; not a grant recipient or training site. Photo: Jaquith59, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped from the original.
