Commercial Appeal - Bioworks aims to turn jobless into tech workers

Early next year, the first batch of long-term unemployed people could land jobs with Memphis tech companies under Bioworks’ new training program.

Memphis Bioworks Foundation was awarded $8.1 million to steer 960 jobless people into local tech companies that often have hired immigrants with work visas. The program will include aspects such as on-the-job training, with wages partially paid by Bioworks, as well as more traditional training.

“It’s quite frankly a win for Memphis because it will put them directly into the economy,” said Pauline Vernon, Bioworks workforce development director. “We expect a good many of them to have college degrees.”

After the award was announced Wednesday, Vernon outlined details of the program Thursday, noting the training won’t ramp up until 2015.

In a region burdened with an 8.5-percent jobless rate, the program aims to retrain skilled people for open slots at a time when business executives often have relied on immigrants to fill technical jobs. Businesses contend skilled Americans are in short supply.

The U.S. Department of Labor granted Bioworks the money through its $169 million Ready to Work Partnership, a federal initiative meant to fill vacant high-skill and middle-skill jobs long taken by foreign nationals working under H-1B visas. The money comes from fees collected by the government on those visas.

In metropolitan Memphis, about 50,000 residents draw unemployment insurance. Among them, about 13,000 have been out of work more than 27 weeks, a condition considered long term. National surveys show 12 percent of the long-term unemployed have completed college and another 36 percent are high school graduates.

Bioworks, an agency created in 2001 to spur the Memphis bioscience industry, applied for the grant in June and surveyed local tech companies.

Half the jobs filled by H-1B visa holders are in information technology positions, and 42 percent are in bioscience, a ratio that Vernon said shows the size of the local bioscience industry. About 77 percent of the H-1B visas issued nationwide are used to fill information technology jobs.

America’s immigration law allows companies in the United States to apply for a total of 85,000 H-1B visas each year on behalf of foreign nationals with appropriate technical skills.

Retraining the Memphis-area residents won’t be inexpensive. Spending $8.1 million to train 960 people will cost about $8,400 per person on average, or more than twice the annual tuition for a Southwest Tennessee Community College student.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, who announced the grant on Wednesday, described the expenditure as money deserved in Memphis.

“While we have seen recent signs of life in our national economy, too many Memphians are still struggling with long-term unemployment and they deserve every bit of assistance from the federal government that is available to get back on their feet,” Cohen said.

Vernon said the training regime includes two programs that add to the cost. Some long-term unemployed will enter on-the-job training programs at companies. Bioworks will pay part of their wages during the training to minimize the employer’s risk, she said.

Others enrolled in traditional training will be supported by case managers and other services to make sure they attend, she said, including child care, career preparation and financial literacy classes.

“You can have an individual in a training program and their success rate is higher than if they were going on their own” to a college, Vernon said.