Jeff Lynn has been hired to oversee Louisiana FastStart, a new program created as part of a workforce development overhaul approved in the last legislative session, Louisiana Department of Economic Development announced today. The program will provide free, customized employee recruitment, screening and training for new and expanding companies.
The program is modeled after Georgia Quick Start, which is the only program LED is aware of in the nation offering such comprehensive, customized workforce solutions. Lynn previously served as the director of regional project operations for the Georgia program, and his hiring is a coup, LED Secretary Stephen Moret says.
“Governor (Bobby) Jindal and Secretary Moret have significant plans for this state that would excite anyone in my business,” says Lynn, whose salary of $160,000 is comparable to that of Quick Start’s director. “This, along with the excitement of starting a new program from scratch, is a golden opportunity for people that love to be challenged daily.”
“We are going to model our entire program after what they have done in Georgia, which is one of the reasons why it was important for us to recruit one of their top veteran leaders,” Moret says. FastStart will have a startup budget of $3 million, which is eventually expected to grow to about half of Georgia’s $15 million annual budget.
FastStart already helped lure Project Sonoma, the Westinghouse/Shaw nuclear module manufacturer expected to create more than 1,400 jobs in Lake Charles, Moret says. EA Sports might use the program for its Baton Rouge game-testing center, along with three to five other pilot projects starting in the first quarter of 2009. By late 2009, FastStart should be available to any manufacturing or research-and-development facility that commits to creating at least15 new jobs, or any service operation that creates 50 jobs.
“Once fully up and running, FastStart will be one of the most powerful weapons in our economic development arsenal,” Moret says.
Lynn says the process generally involves a “project study” trip to a company’s existing facility that is similar to the new operation they plan to build or expand, then creating a training plan and curriculum. Asked to name a specific company that he had helped lure to Georgia, he said Japanese company Toyo Tire was the most recent example. That project was very competitive between Georgia and Alabama, he says.
The Louisiana Community and Technical College System and Louisiana Workforce Commission and the Louisiana Workforce Commission will also work on the program’s implementation.
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