Gov. Brown to highlight apprenticeship program in Bend visit

(Update: Details on governor’s other Bend stop)

Governor Kate Brown will visit Bend Wednesday to highlight a new apprenticeship program that supports the Governor’s Future Ready Oregon initiative, as well as sign legislation to fund OSU-Cascades’ second academic building, her office said Tuesday.

The initiative, announced earlier this year, closes the gap between the skills Oregon’s workers have and the skills Oregon’s growing businesses need to thrive in the economy of the future, the governor’s office said in a statement.

Bend and Central Oregon are one of the fastest-growing job markets in the country. This presents an opportunity for Oregonians seeking work, particularly as Central Oregon’s tech industry takes off.

To address Bend’s growing tech industry demand, the East Cascades Workforce Investment Board has partnered with the Technology Association of Oregon and Apprenti, the nation’s first registered tech apprenticeship program, to provide industry guidance on tech training and job placement for apprentices and businesses in Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties.

Governor Brown will meet at Five Talent Inc. with potential participants in the program and those who developed it.

Later in the day, she will also visit the campus of Oregon State University – Cascades to sign HB 5702, which includes $39 million in capital funding for a new academic building. Funding for the project is part of a larger, statewide investment package that includes new facilities on the campuses of Eastern Oregon University and the University of Oregon.

These projects serve high-need, growing communities, and each will feature Oregon manufactured wood products –particularly cross-laminated timber (CLT) — in construction.

The 1:45 p.m. signing will be hosted by OSU-Cascades Vice President Becky Johnson in the Bruckner Courtyard, immediately west of Tykeson Hall on the OSU-Cascades campus on Chandler Avenue.

Speakers will include Brown, Johnson and OSU-Cascades students.

Also expected to attend are members of the Central Oregon legislative delegation, donors whose gifts of over $9 million for the academic building are helping achieve a $10 million philanthropic match for the state funding, and members of the Now4 OSU-Cascades advocacy group and the Beaver Caucus coalition.

Brown will sign House Bill 5702, which includes $39 million in capital funding for the new building, which will be devoted to the study of STEAM subjects – science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.

OSU-Cascades has committed to use Oregon manufactured wood products – particularly cross-laminated timber – in the construction of the building.