Representative Geraldo Alicea (D-Charlton) recently announced that the Commonwealth Corporation has released a new grant under the Massachusetts Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund (WCTF), which will provide opportunities for employers to create strategies to retain their older workforce.

The Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund supports industry-sector based workforce development programs, and has designated this funding specifically to serve older workers. The grant will not only support the Commonwealth’s businesses by designing strategies that will increase their ability to retain their older workers, but it will also support the sharing of such strategies developed through the design grant to increase the collective knowledge on methods for retaining older workers. 

“With roughly 40% of the state’s workforce being over the age of 45, this funding is essential to enable employers throughout the Commonwealth to create strategies to retain these skilled and experienced older workers.” said Representative Alicea. 

The maximum funding amount is $50,000 and may be used over a twelve-month period. The application can be found at www.commcorp.org. Applications are due by August 1, 2008, with announcements of funding to be made on or after September 19, 2008. If you have any questions or would like more information about this grant, please contact Karen Shack at kshack@commcorp.org or call 617-727-8158 x 2250.