THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 2, 1994 TAG: 9411030606
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Old Dominion University has received a $7 million federal grant - the largest in ODU's history - to retrain 1,500 military personnel who have lost, or will lose, their jobs.
``While the trauma to families affected by . . . (defense) decisions is significant, a new day of opportunity is here,'' said Terry E. Riley, director of ODU's Technology Applications Center. Riley will direct the training program.
The grant, from the U.S. Department of Labor, will allow ODU to prepare about 750 people in each of the next two years for manufacturing and technical jobs. One year of training will be compressed into intensive 16-week sessions. The first session will begin in April, Riley said.
``What is unusual and distinctive about this particular program,'' said ODU President James V. Koch, ``is that the courses will be specified by industry so that they (the students) can fit into positions that will do industry the most good.''
The curriculum hasn't been set, Riley said, but it might include training in areas such as computer work and project management. A laid-off construction worker for the U.S. Department of Defense, for example, could be trained to be a manager of a private company.
Riley estimated that ODU could guarantee jobs to one-third of the students before they started and another third while they were at ODU. The university would help the others find jobs after their training.
ODU officials said the community, too, will benefit from the program. ``Instead of having people
downgrade their skills and lose their edge or move somewhere else . . . we keep them here, we keep their income here; we keep their skills here,'' Riley said.
ODU has estimated that 10,000 people in Hampton Roads could be eligible. The program would be open to most military personnel, and some employees of defense contractors, who have lost their jobs because of military reductions and base closings and who are not eligible for retirement pay.
It also will be open to defense employees who may lose their jobs in the next round of base closings, which will begin in spring.
Riley said he expects plenty of candidates from Norfolk's Naval Aviation Depot, which has 3,300 workers and is scheduled to close in 1996. ``They'll jump on this big time,'' he said.
This is the third big grant that area colleges have received this fall.
In September, Norfolk State University won a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to beef up its materials-research lab, and Hampton University got a $3.7 million grant from the Army to help create an Aeroscience Institute to train displaced defense workers, women and minorities.
This isn't Old Dominion's first program to help military personnel get new jobs. The university's Military Career Transition Program has trained more than 320 teachers since 1988.
The new program will be run by ODU's College of Engineering. The $7 million will help pay for 20 new teachers, high-tech equipment and financial aid for the students, Riley said.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
President James V. Koch of Old Dominion University makes the
announcement.
Photo
FILE/Staff
Naval Aviation Depot, scheduled to close, should provide trainees.
Graphic
FOR DETAILS
Call the grant program at 683-5505.
by CNB