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State Grants Helping Women Compete For High-Paying Jobs That Men Usually Get

State Grants Help More Women Train For Well-Paying Jobs Usually Held By Men

Women with low incomes who live in the state of Minnesota have an opportunity to learn a new trade and make more money through the state's new Women and High-Wage, High-Demand, Nontraditional Jobs Grant Program.

How the program works

Minnesota’s Commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development, Katie Clark Sieben, explains how the program works. "The grants target low-wage women or those over age 50 who want in on some of Minnesota’s highest-growth industries. The new program should slim the gender wage gap, where women earn just 80 cents for every $1 a man earns."

Helping women gain skills in non-traditional fields

The program is designed to train more women in construction, manufacturing, robotics, trucking and other well-paying industries generally occupied by men. A total of $475,000 in grants will be awarded to companies who train women in non-traditional fields. Some of the companies who received grants included Goodwill-Easter Seals in St. Paul who will use their grant to train women to become carpenters, concrete masons, painters and construction workers through a 12-week certification program.

Other grant recipients were the YWCA of St. Paul and the White Earth Indian Reservation. These organizations will use their grants to teach women to drive commercial trucks and get their commercial licenses.

For more information on Minnesota's new grant program and how it helps women, visit www.startribune.com/business/288124021.html