The Job Training Incentive Program Board met for its monthly meeting recently, funding 11 New Mexico companies to hire and train 97 trainees, Economic Development Department Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes announced. The March awards totaled $1,032,802.
The Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP) funds classroom and on-the-job training for new full-time jobs and interns in expanding or relocating businesses for up to 6 months. The program reimburses 50-75% of employee wages, with higher reimbursement for rural, high-wage positions, and to companies hiring recent New Mexico graduates and Veterans.
This month’s awards lean toward the high-tech and the handmade, supporting jobs in engineering, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, artificial intelligence, local wine, and hand-made tiles and jewelry.
The 11 companies receiving JTIP funds in March are:
The Boeing Company (Boeing), Albuquerque, 2 trainees. Average wage: $49.89; total award: $55,230. Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners, defense, space, and security systems. The company supports airlines and U.S. and allied government customers in more than 150 countries. Products and services include commercial and military aircraft, satellites, weapons, electronic and defense systems, launch systems, advanced information and communications systems, and performance-based logistics training.
IDEAS Engineering & Technology LLC (IDEAS-Tek), Albuquerque, 6 trainees. Average wage: $36.25; total award: $120,370. IDEAS-Tek provides cost-effective embedded system solutions for high-reliability applications to government and commercial customers. With a strong focus in the aerospace market, the company’s portfolio of solutions includes digital microelectronics, high-performance and high-reliability embedded systems, and computing and sensing systems. The company has clients in numerous markets including aerospace, defense, medical, and emergency responder.
Lancs Industries Inc., Albuquerque, 54 trainees. Average wage: $16.46; total award: 178,930. Lancs Industries’ products facilitate the safe handling of radioactive nuclear waste and provide shielding from nuclear emissions. The company has produced over 80% of the radiation shielding used in U.S. nuclear power plants and naval facilities and is one of the largest producers of flexible lead-free shielding products made from tungsten, bismuth, and iron. Lancs Industries also began producing PPE at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MTX Group Inc., Albuquerque, 10 trainees. Average wage: $42.76; total award: $228,866. MTX Group Inc. is a global technology consulting firm powered by the Maverick Quantum (mavQ) Artificial Intelligence Platform that enables organizations to modernize through digital transformation and strategy. MTX is committed to advancing society through education, technology, and a better quality of life, while partnering with government agencies and the private sector. MTX has provided emergency response management solutions that address the various effects of COVID-19 on communities across the nation, including health monitoring, disease transmission tracking, unemployment insurance claims, emergency childcare, isolation services for higher education, and vaccination management.
New Mexico Wineries, Inc. (dba Lescombes Family Vineyards), Deming, 1 trainee. Average wage: $19; total award: $13,844. The Lescombes family has been crafting wine in New Mexico since their emigration from Burgundy, France in 1981. The 6th generation of the Lescombes family, Emmanuel Lescombes is the viticulturist and manages vineyard operations and Florent Lescombes is the proprietor and manages winery operations. The winery is located in the Mimbres Valley, just outside of Deming, and the 200-acre vineyard is located in the Pyramid Valley. The winery crafts over 40 different wines under many labels, including Blue Teal, D.H. Lescombes, Soleil, and St. Clair. They also operate a number of bistros and tasting rooms.
Reflective Jewelry, Santa Fe, 1 trainee. Average wage: $23.50; total award: $12,280. Reflective Jewelry has an extremely well-equipped manufacturing facility with a wide variety of tools and machinery. Rooted in a Southwestern design tradition, the company resembles a kind of old-style shop that might have existed fifty years ago, but they have also embraced the most modern techniques, including computer-generated CAD/CAM renderings used to create virtually any design imaginable.
Sceye Inc., Moriarty, 6 trainees. Average wage: $48.93; total award: $210,672 Sceye has developed airships made from a new, super-light, and uniquely tough fabric and powered by a clean, ultra-efficient, solar energy system. The fleet will form a powerful platform for virtual infrastructure, each one capable of carrying a large payload of cameras, sensors, hyper-spectral imaging, radar, and communications equipment. Sceye is actively expanding its operations in N.M. to include engineering, production, operations, and services for a fast-expanding customer base in telecommunications, maritime, earth observation, climate monitoring and large-scale surveying markets.
Specifica Inc., Santa Fe, 1 trainee. Average wage: $30.05; total award: $17,188. Specifica, Inc. empowers companies that create cures with visionary antibody technologies. Drug-like antibodies with broad diversity, high affinities, and few biophysical liabilities can be selected directly from their Generation 3 Antibody Library Platform without the need for downstream improvement. The platform is also used to carry out antibody discovery. Specifica also collaborates closely with partners to create custom libraries in which essential elements are optimized according to partner needs.
Supplyone Tucson, Inc. (dba: Supply One), Albuquerque, 7 trainees. Average wage: $16.36; total award: $28,960. Supply One designs and manufactures packaging products, offering custom corrugated products, plastic thermoforming, vacuum pouches, packaging films, trays, containers, stock paper, packaging, and shipping supplies, as well as equipment. The company has operations in 20 states and each one is highly regarded in their local and regional markets.
Syzygy Tile, Silver City, 2 trainees. Average wage: $12.75; total award: $9,180. Syzygy Tile makes handmade tile that is distributed by a network of around 140 authorized vendors in the U.S. as well as locations in Canada and Mexico. Their tile is primarily suited to residential applications though the amount of commercial work they receive has been rapidly increasing. Syzygy's manufacturing process leans nearly exclusively on the handwork of individual employees. All of their operations (manufacturing, shipping, office, and showroom) are housed under one roof. They are currently working on plans to expand in the next 12-18 months to a larger building in Silver City.
Vibrant Corporation, Albuquerque, 7 trainees. Average wage: $40.07; total award: $157,280. Vibrant Corporation was formed to license a high-speed automated system called Process Compensated Resonance Testing (PCRT) for tier 1 suppliers to the big three auto makers. Today, their revolutionary services support the worldwide aerospace, automotive, and power generation industries, as well as materials laboratories with unparalleled nondestructive testing (NDT). PCRT applications range from quality assurance and process capability assessment for original equipment manufacturers to in-service structural assessment and life monitoring for maintenance, repair, and overhaul organizations.