The State of New Mexico's Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP) Board has awarded 18 companies with over $5.5 million during September and October 2020, in support of 803 new jobs, Economic Development Department Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes announced.
The September awards totaled $3.6 million for 672 trainees and 1 intern, with another $1.9 million for 129 trainees and 1 intern awarded in October. Average salaries for trainees ranged from $11.62 to $69.71 per hour, with companies located throughout New Mexico, including Albuquerque, Deming, Las Vegas, Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Sunland Park, Taos, and Truth or Consequences.
“The recent job-training grants show that businesses from Taos to Deming are looking to create good jobs in all corners of the state,” said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. “My Administration will continue to do everything possible to support businesses who want to hire workers or promote employees into higher-paying jobs so we can have a long-lasting recovery that benefits New Mexico families.”
The JTIP program is instrumental in attracting and retaining businesses in New Mexico. It’s reimbursement for training new employees and employees who wish to improve their current job position is a driving force for expansion of local employment.
"JTIP is supporting new jobs in timber, meat processing, energy, robotics, food manufacturing, software, and satellites," Cabinet Secretary Keyes said. "These are the diverse industries that are growing and expanding in New Mexico with help from JTIP and other economic incentives. This is one way the state and lawmakers can help businesses grow and create jobs in uncertain economic times."
September/October JTIP Awardees:
Affordable Solar Installation, Inc., Albuquerque – 19 trainees, 1 intern. Affordable Solar Installation has installed over 2,500 solar arrays in New Mexico and supplied more than 20,000 solar systems to commercial, industrial, scientific, community, and residential customers in 96 countries.
Amount Awarded: $369,594.80; Avg Wage: $36.22; Intern Wage: $17.00
Barela Timber Management Company, Inc., Las Vegas – 6 trainees. Barela Timber manufactures various wood products geared for the southwestern building industry. The company currently owns and operates three post and hole peelers, three sawmills, and various rolling stock equipment.
Amount Awarded: $25,307.20; Avg Wage: $12.21
Build With Robots, LLC (BWR), Albuquerque – 1 trainee. BWR’s robots use the latest-generation technology to enhance productivity and is developing innovative solutions targeted toward under-automated industries to improve worker productivity, quality, and satisfaction. BWR robots are being used for nightly cleaning services at the Albuquerque Sunport and the company is working to scale up to provide this service to airports nationwide.
Amount Awarded: $20,020.00; Average Wage: $35.00
Faneuil, Inc., Albuquerque – 251 trainees. Faneuil specializes in designing, implementing, managing, and operating multichannel customer care, back-office business processing and solutions.
Amount Awarded: $822,382.40; Avg Wage: $13.13.
High Plains Processing, LLC, Las Vegas – 1 trainee. High Plains Processing provides customized slaughtering and cutting services, and is assisting in the integration of the beef supply chain from producer to consumer. Once completed, the facility will have the capacity to process approximately 400 head per week.
Amount Awarded: $15,288.00; Avg Wage: $19.60
Kairos Power, Albuquerque – 1 intern. Kairos Power is an advanced energy technology and engineering company focused on developing clean innovative nuclear technology. The N.M. facility conducts non-nuclear testing.
Amount Awarded: $6,000.00; Intern Wage: $20.00
Marty's Meals, Inc., Santa Fe – 4 trainees. Marty’s Meals prepares “species-appropriate” dog and cat food recipes using fresh, whole ingredients, sourced from ethical ranchers and farmers from New Mexico when available. The products are sold fresh and frozen in their own market locations in Santa Fe, Boulder CO, and online.
Amount Awarded: $40,140.00; Avg Wage: $21.38
New Mexico Build, LLC, Truth or Consequences – 2 trainees. NM Build is a 100% owned subsidiary of SpinLaunch Inc., aiding in the fabrication and manufacturing needs for its parent company.
Amount Awarded: $100,248.08; Avg Wage: $60.10.
New Mexico Wineries, Inc. (dba Lescombes Family Vineyards), Deming – 7 trainees. The Lescombes family has been crafting wine in New Mexico since their emigration from Burgundy, France in 1981. The winery crafts over 40 different wines under many labels, including Blue Teal, D.H. Lescombes, Soleil, and St. Clair. They also operate several bistros and tasting rooms.
Amount Awarded: $23,728.00; Avg Wage: $11.62
Paradise Power Company, Inc. (PPC Solar), Taos – 15 trainees. PPC Solar specializes in the development and installation of commercial, utility, and residential photovoltaic systems. This award is part of JTIP's Step Up Program, which serves to train new skills and knowledge to incumbent employees and their employers.
Amount Awarded: $14,680.00
Resilient Solutions 21, Inc. (RS21), Albuquerque – 12 trainees. RS21 is a data science and visualization company. They have built the Urban Health Vulnerability Index to provide public and healthcare officials with free and instant access to data in 500 cities in order to help officials make critical decisions about how best to allocate scarce resources during the pandemic.
September: Amount Awarded: $288,741.24; Avg Wage: $45.65.
October Amended Award: Amount Awarded: $39,874.12; Avg Wage: $69.71.
Specifica, Los Alamos – 6 trainees. Specifica was founded in order to commercialize expertise in antibody engineering for drug discovery. Specifica has identified a pipeline of over 400 biotech and pharma companies that are potential clients for their custom libraries and discovery services.
Amount Awarded: $112,270.52; Avg Wage: $33.66.
SpinLaunch, Inc., Truth or Consequences – 1 trainee. SpinLaunch is an R&D aerospace company with the goal of developing a revolutionary mass acceleration launch technology that will allow for on demand launches of small satellites in virtually any weather, at an order of magnitude that allows for lower cost than existing and new generation launch systems.
Amount Awarded: $29,537.28; Avg Wage: $38.46.
Stampede Meat, Inc., Sunland Park – 377 trainees. Stampede Meat is a leading provider of portion-controlled protein solutions. It’s facility in Sunland Park is the largest of the Stampede Meat facilities with the capacity to process and prepare 100 million pounds of meat once fully staffed later this year. By June 2025, they plan to employ 1,295 full-time employees.
Amount Awarded: $2,192,501.84; Avg Wage: $12.31.
SupplyOne Tucson, Inc. (dba Supply One), Albuquerque – 5 trainees. Supply One designs and manufactures packaging products. The company has operations in 20 states.
Amount Awarded: $19,120.00; Avg Wage: $14.75.
TORC Robots (TORC), Albuquerque – 60 trainees. TORC is committed to creating the full-stack software for autonomous driving and sensor suite integration vehicles. They have been developing Driverless vehicles capable of navigating off-road terrain to lighten the load of warfighters and autonomously deliver supplies through potentially dangerous routes. TORC also developed driverless solutions for mining and construction. The Albuquerque facility serves as the base of its testing operations for highly automated semi-trucks.
Amount Awarded: $1,130,389.12; Avg Wage: $37.32.
Twistle, Albuquerque – 4 trainees. Twistle provides a fully automated platform to help large healthcare and life science organizations provide more personalized care to their patients. The company has quickly developed a remote patient monitoring pathway to safely facilitate the recovery of non-critical COVID-19 patients in their homes.
Amount Awarded: $98,520.28; Avg Wage: $42.62
Vitality Works, Inc., Albuquerque – 30 trainees. Vitality Works provides leading edge medicinal supplements to healthcare practitioners, health food stores, retail stores, natural food traders, multi-level marketing companies, and foreign operations worldwide.
Amount Awarded: $205,761.68; Avg Wage: $19.11
Since January 2019, the JTIP Board awarded money to approximately 102 businesses to train 4,438 workers and create 4,012 new jobs. Of these newly created jobs, 1,615 (40%) were rural and 2,397 (60%) were urban jobs in communities across the state.