State officials are looking outside government for an organization to run the new center that will train workers for the 7E7 program.
“There was no heir apparent,” said Kathy DiJulio, the state’s 7E7 work-force development coordinator. “It could go to a private vendor. It could go to a community college. It could go to a nonprofit.”
The state’s Employment Security Department on Tuesday called for bids from organizations interested in running the new 7E7 Employment Resource Center, which is expected to start training workers in 2006.
The successful bidder will manage a customized training program that will be different from anything else the state does, DiJulio said.
The program will train 800 to 1,200 manufacturing workers to assemble the plane in Everett. The center will provide initial training for workers before they are hired, plus refresher courses for those already on the job.
The center will screen applicants, and Boeing will hire through it. The organization picked to run the center will be hired by the state and will be managed by Boeing’s human resources division, the bid document says. It will “assume full responsibility for designing, developing, implementing and sustaining the full range of activities” the center provides.
It could do that itself or subcontract with other organizations that have special expertise, DiJulio said.
Organizations must submit bids by Sept. 20. The state plans to award the contract by Jan. 10.
Meanwhile, the state continues to look for a site for the 40,000-square-foot training center near Paine Field. Officials expect to choose a site by late summer, the bid document says.
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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