{"id":73172,"date":"2017-02-04T00:12:15","date_gmt":"2017-02-04T07:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/western-excelsior-gets-38000-workforce-grant\/"},"modified":"2017-02-04T07:12:15","modified_gmt":"2017-02-04T07:12:15","slug":"western-excelsior-gets-38000-workforce-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/western-excelsior-gets-38000-workforce-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Excelsior gets $38,000 workforce grant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=cbae0286-95b2-46ff-ae9b-2aa829643a13&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1387\" alt=\"Kyle Hanson explains a process at the Western Excelsior plant in Mancos in 2014.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Kyle Hanson explains a process at the Western Excelsior plant in Mancos in 2014.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Sam Green\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Western Excelsior in Mancos received a $38,000 workforce development grant for training for 44 employees through Southwest Colorado Community College, the company\u2019s human resources employee, Stacy Morris, said Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe purpose of the grant is to provide essential training to some employees and help them grow in their positions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade awarded the company the grant through the Existing Industry training program, according to a news release from SCCC. Western Excelsior employees will take some classes on the college campus, as well as participate in hands-on training at the plant in Mancos.<\/p>\n<p>Western Excelsior processes wood to create erosion-control products such as shaved aspen, also known as excelsior.<\/p>\n<p>Several employees will take a first-aid training class that will include CPR and AED training, Morris said. The goal is to certify several workers on each shift.<\/p>\n<p>Employees also will have the opportunity to take a forklift training class that includes a lecture on the college campus and instruction at the Western Excelsior plant, Morris said. There will also be welding and pneumatics training for the maintenance department.<\/p>\n<p>Some leadership team members will take courses to  streamline plant processes, Morris said. They will also take \u201croot cause\u201d courses to help them identify problems.<\/p>\n<p>Western Excelsior employs about 100 people, and the training will be finished by mid-May, Morris said.<\/p>\n<p>The program will help workers develop skills and may help some increase their wages over the next several years, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Western Excelsior uses techniques unique to its manufacturing process, Morris added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe pride ourselves on being forward-thinking,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>go toward workforce training<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,83,60],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-73172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-mancos","tag-montezuma-county"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73172"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=73172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}