Lake Region State College Earns Workforce Enhancement Grant

Posted on 10/16/2012

The North Dakota Department of Commerce announced a $288,600 workforce enhancement grant for Lake Region State College. The grant will support efforts to develop an educational training program for the agriculture industry. Partner companies are providing matching resources for the project.

The new project will provide skill-based training of employees of implement dealers, agribusinesses and agriculture producers on the use of precision agriculture. Precision agriculture is the practice of using remote sensing, soil sampling and information management tools to improve production. The training will be conducted at the Dakota Precision Ag Center's training facility as well as at sites requested by the agribusiness and producers.

"The workforce enhancement grants help increase the capacity of our higher education institutions like Lake Region State College to provide a consistent pipeline of well-trained workers educated right here in North Dakota," Department of Commerce Commissioner Al Anderson said. "Agriculture continues to be the #1 sector of our state's economy. This initiative will assist the state's agriculture industry to move towards an even higher level of efficiency and use of precision agriculture technologies."

Workforce enhancement grants enable two-year colleges to apply for funds to help create or enhance training programs that address workforce needs of North Dakota's private-sector employers. Projects require a dollar-for-dollar match of all state money with private funds.

Grant funding may be used for curriculum development, equipment, recruiting participants, and training and certifying instructors. Funds may not be used to supplant funding for current operations.

The Workforce Enhancement Council reviews all proposals and provides funding recommendations to the commissioner of the North Dakota Department of Commerce. The council consists of the private-sector membership of the North Dakota Workforce Development Council, the state director of the Department of Career & Technical Education, and the division director of the Workforce Development Division of the North Dakota Department of Commerce, who serves as the chair.






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OI and sister company, ABS, Open second service point in Eagle Ford region

Posted on January 25, 2012 by ofi

Oilfield Instrumentation (OI), together with its sister company, advanced building Services (ABS), a supplier of custom well site accommodations, announced the opening of its January 15 second service center in the Eagle Ford shale fields.

The center follows the westward enlargement of Tilden activities in the play Eagle Ford drilling and complements the companies existing center in Victoria, Texas. The location of the Tilden of OI offers 24/7 dismantling and maintenance of real-time drilling instrumentation, satellite communications and rent of diving equipment by trained technicians, as well as delivery and transfer.

ABS ensures steel rig-site accommodations, and delivery, glides on demand, power-up/down, post-job maintenance, and will also offer pickup and hauling water. The companies have five 18-wheelers dedicated to this site for equipment transport, in support of their goals with regard to consistently provide the fastest response times industry.

The OI-ABS service center will occupy 10,000 square meters on a five-acre plot of land, insomuch that the companies providing services for storage, maintenance and renovation.

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Visits Kurdistan Region

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Gryshchenko Kostyantyn on his first visit to the Kurdistan Region met with President Masoud Barzani, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, and government ministers in Erbil.

Mr Kostyantyn came to the Kurdistan Region as part of his visit to Iraq and arrived in Erbil from Baghdad. President Barzani and Foreign Minister Kostyantyn discussed ways of establishing closer relations between the Kurdistan Region and Ukraine.

The President said,

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