JobsOhio, the state's private economic development corporation, is investing $300 million into a new job readiness fund benefitting Ohioans and employers.
The investment, announced Tuesday at the Rockefeller Foundation's Big Bets conference in Downtown Cleveland, will be used to train workers and connect them with businesses.
JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef said the funding will help more than 50,000 employees over ten years.
"This $300 million is going to work with employers and create a classroom-to-career scenario for Ohio's workers," Nauseef said.
Gov. Mike DeWine said the program will work with existing and potential business partners to gauge the kinds of workers they need, then work with technical, trade or academic institutions to get employees ready to hit the ground running.
"The companies get an employee they can trust and is trained specifically for them," DeWine said. "The individual gets a better job, better opportunity, and the state prospers. It’s just a win-win-win."
The program is expected to begin later this summer. No partners have been announced yet.
"It gives an incentive to the company to work with their local community college in many cases; they may work with a four-year institution, as well," DeWine told reporters after the announcement. "But it's really focused on what I think is the biggest challenge Ohio faces: we are creating a lot of jobs, and we're going to continue to create a lot jobs."
Word of the new JobsOhio fund came on the heels of another major local investment announcement at the Big Bets conference. The Cleveland Foundation unveiled an additional $13 million toward the city's Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund, which reclaims and remediates brownfields for redevelopment to attract employers to the city. That brings that fund up to about $80 million toward Mayor Justin Bibb's $100 million goal.
Huntington Bank also pledged $10 million toward Cleveland's Housing Investment Fund, which finances affordable housing developments for Clevelanders with modest incomes, increasing CHIF's total capital to $53 million — halfway to its $100 million goal.
The conference, hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation, convenes leaders across the country to discuss what they call the most ambitious solutions to issues facing America. Cleveland was the last stop of the year after similar conferences in Baltimore and Oklahoma City, which included a $100 million investment announcement for a jobs fund in Baltimore.
