Grant to aid home-grown tech training

With a $1.5 million federal grant, the University of Washington is attempting to help fix one of the most daunting problems in the high-tech industry: training enough skilled workers.

Gov. Gary Locke and UW President Richard McCormick plan to announce today the university will develop seven certificate programs by January to help train people for an industry that increasingly has had to look overseas for qualified workers.

The grant will be used to hire instructors and set up online and evening programs serving 660 or more students. Courses will last six to nine months.

Money for the program comes from a swelling pot of $500 H-1B visa fees high-tech companies must pay for each new foreign recruit. (Under H-1B visas, foreign workers are granted permission to live and work in the United States if employers aren't able to find skilled workers domestically.)

The U.S. Department of Labor is distributing the money in nine states for programs to train more workers here at home.

The need for such a program has become more acute. In April, the Information Technology Association of America reported that more than 800,000 of 1.6 million high-tech jobs created this year will be unfilled by the end of the year.

"Anything we can do to increase the worker pool, we should do," said Sheri Lee, director of human resources at Bellevue-based Bsquare.

Under the program, Bellevue, Edmonds and Pierce community colleges will work with the UW, along with the Washington Software Alliance and Private Industry Councils of Snohomish, Pierce and Seattle-King counties.

The community colleges are being told they'll get 30 percent of their students into UW information-technology courses, which have been full in the past.

"Our students will now have more options," said Suzanne Marks, dean of Workforce Development at Bellevue Community College. "They won't be turned down as often for programs that don't have enough room."

Luke Timmerman's phone message number is 206-515-5644. His e-mail address is: ltimmerman@seattletimes.com.