GRANTEE:                   Cook County Workforce Investment Board

ADDRESS:                  69 West Washington Street, Suite 2860

                             Chicago, IL  60602-9994

AMOUNT:                    $3,000,000

DURATION:                April 1, 2003 – April 1, 2005 (24 months)

POPULATION SERVED:         700 Incumbent workers, including minorities and workers with disabilities

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:           IBM and Allstate will utilize their internal training divisions to provide many of the courses to be supported with H-1B grant resources.  This training will help upgrade the skills of incumbent workers in a variety of courses intended to address a spectrum of skill levels in the information technology area.  IBM’s training division will offer courses to 400 employees focusing on systems administration, programming in various languages, and web applications.  Allstate will offer training to 200 employees along seven different tracks: Visual Studio 6.0, Web Programming, ASP.net, Visual Basic.net, C#.net, Java WebSphere Interface Development, and Java WebSphere Component Development.  Both IBM and Allstate offer extensive curriculum choices in information technology and both offer classes on-line or in a computer lab as well as several blended programs which utilize both methods of instruction.  Additionally, 100 hundred incumbent workers from the DOIT Network of IT contractors and other small business partners will receive vouchers to access IT-related training at local Chicago-area WIA-approved training providers.

KEY PARTICIPANTS: Cook County WIB, Cook County President’s Office of Employment and Training, DOIT Network of IT contractors, Cook County Chamber of Commerce, Allstate Insurance Company, International Business Machines, Stewards of Technology, Inc., and NCG Associates.

MEDIA CONTACT:              Dr. Francis Muthu

                                      (312) 603-0200