Firstlogic gets high-tech grant

La Crosse Tribune, Jun 12, 2001 by Cahalan, Steve

A $448,900 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor will be used to upgrade the skills of 100 Firstlogic Inc. employees and provide high-tech training for another 80 people, U.S. Rep. Ron Kind announced Monday.

The two-year grant has been awarded to Workforce Connections Inc., a La Crosse-based nonprofit organization that serves Buffalo, Crawford, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, Monroe, Trempealeau and Vernon counties. It provides career planning, job-search assistance and skills training to job seekers, laid-off workers and youths.

Kind, D-La Crosse, said he is delighted the grant for high-tech training was approved, "so that we can help companies such as Firstlogic meet their growth needs, keep them in business, keep them growing in this area. So that more people, as they develop these skills, whether graduating from school or developing jobtraining skills, will have a place in which to go to work. So we don't continuously see the brain drain that's been taking place here in the state of Wisconsin."

Kind announced the grant at a press conference at the headquarters of La Crosse-based Firstlogic, which provides computer software products and services for electronic commerce, data warehousing and print and mail applications.

Firstlogic has been growing rapidly, and has about 410 employees including about 300 in La Crosse, said Paul J. Byrne, executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Finding people with the right skills is the biggest challenge the company faces, Byrne said. The training grant will be a big help, he said.

Rich Petro, Firstlogic vice president of human resources, said the training will make it easier for the company to grow.

"Everybody is competing for the same kind of people right now," he said. "So if we can build and develop some of them instead of always having to go find (people with more advanced training), that might allow us to hire more entry-level people, which are a little easier to come by."

"Firstlogic called us and wanted to know if we could help with training needs," said Beth Sullivan, Workforce Connections director of planning and marketing. It is not unusual for the U.S. Department of Labor to award a grant for training a specific company's employees, she said.

The grant also will provide training for 70 workers who have been laid off or are "underemployed," and for 10 homemakers - such as a widow or recently divorced person - who can no longer depend on someone as an income source. The training will help qualify them to fill entry-level positions at Firstlogic and other firms.

The training project is a cooperative effort by Workforce Connections, Firstlogic, the Western Wisconsin Workforce Development Board, and the Coulee Region Technology Business Alliance.