The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute, a Department of Defense Manufacturing Innovation Institute, has announced that the Department of Labor (DoL) is providing a grant to the Institute to meet the immediate needs of unemployed and displaced workers in the Tampa Bay, Florida region and create a comprehensive national capability for talent identification and attraction for manufacturers nationwide. The ARM Institute-led project, “Connecting Talent to Careers”, is receiving funding from the Department of Labor’s National Dislocated Worker Grant in the amount of $2.997 million and is leveraging $650,000 of additional non-federal funds.
The ARM Institute is the nation’s leading collaborative in robotics and workforce innovation, working at the confluence of industry, government, and academia. Structured as a public-private partnership, the ARM Institute and its member organizations accelerate robotic technologies and education solutions to strengthen the U.S. industrial base and secure U.S. manufacturing resiliency.
The two-year grant is made available through the CAREER (Comprehensive and Accessible Reemployment through Equitable Employment Recovery) National Dislocated Worker Grants, Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration. The grant will help address the immediate shortage challenge of skilled labor in manufacturing, as exposed by the pandemic, as well as expand a national resource designed to encourage more people to obtain Industry 4.0 education and pursue careers in advanced manufacturing, with a focus on robotics.