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White House Launches ‘Employ Milwaukee’ Tech Program

The program is part of President Obama's push to help people learn the skills they need through nontraditional approaches, universities and community colleges.

(TNS) -- Milwaukee has been picked by White House officials to participate in a worker training program focused on preparing people for technology jobs.

"It's really about getting people the skills to help in this economy," Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said.

Employ Milwaukee is set to lead the program, known as Milwaukee's TechHire Inititiative, which aims to train and place 150 people into technology jobs by 2017. That number is expected to increase to 600 by 2020, officials said.

The Housing Authority and its Milwaukee TechForce Center will also participate by providing accelerated training to people picked by their employers to get skills that are in-demand for technology jobs. The program will be focused on people who face economic and gender barriers to jobs in technology fields.

Those who graduate from the center will be connected to paid internships, apprenticeships and full time jobs, officials said.

Those helping with the program including the Milwaukee 7, Metropolitan Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce, the Water Council, the Center for Healthcare Careers of Southeastern Wisconsin and IT United of the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County.

Barrett said the program will train workers for jobs in a broad range of fields, including health care, manufacturing and finance.

The program is part of President Barack Obama's push to help people learn the skills they need through nontraditional approaches as well as universities and community colleges.

©2016 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.