Investing in our People
Alexandria Industries has been very fortunate over the years to receive almost $2 million in training grants from the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) program through the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. When you add the required 1:1 matching funds, we have invested more than double this amount in training our workforce.
We recently received another MJSP training grant that we are using to further develop our skills in the professional, business and technical sectors that will affect all levels of our organization. Each area will transition from a centralized focus to an expanded company-wide focus.
The training programs have a three-category approach. One is the professional side, which expands on our Leadership Academy with different classes to help develop those skills. The other is the business side from a foundational level to a mastery level. And the third is the manufacturing side, to give people key technical skills so they can step right into a manufacturing environment they may not be familiar with.
In addition to developing the grant application, we partnered with the Alexandria Technical & Community College (ATCC) to develop our training courses and curriculum. Altogether, the training courses total more than 2,500 hours of training that will reach approximately 250 employees at our Minnesota locations.
The "P" in MJSP stands for partnership. MJSP and ATCC have been great partners for us. Our ability to identify training needs, take them to the college, and work with MJSP to help provide funding has allowed us to train our workforce in today's fast-paced, skills development timeline.
Our overarching goal is to help our employees quickly grow their technical skills,expand their management and supervision capabilities, and ultimately, increase the level of productivity within our organization.