Dr. Greg Sedrick, Director of the New Economy Institute in Chattanooga, announced Monday that Congressman Zach Wamp has successfully secured second year funding of $500,000 through the U.S. Department of Labor for the Tennessee Valley Corridor's emerging Workforce Aging Management Program. The second year funding is in addition to another $500,000 that Wamp secured last year to help launch this program.

Under the leadership of Dr. Sedrick, the Tennessee Valley Corridor's Workforce Aging Management Program, better known as the WAMP initiative, is moving forward on numerous fronts to better align the needs of high tech employers with the workers and skills needed to attract the jobs of the future and to replace the rapidly aging workforce at major federal facilities in the Valley.

At a recent Tennessee Valley Corridor economic summit in Chattanooga, several top officials from federal facilities across the Tennessee Valley came to discuss their urgent need to find qualified people to replace an aging workforce of engineers, technicians and other professionals.

"The Tennessee Valley Corridor and the WAMP Initiative are taking a leadership role on an issue that is important not only to this region, but to the entire nation," said Wamp at today's announcement. "During President Bush's State of the Union speech before the Congress, he proposed $250 million in new funding to help develop partnerships between community colleges and employers in high-demand job sectors."

"I'm pleased to report that on this one we were ahead of the curve because this is exactly what the Tennessee Valley Corridor has been actively working on here for the past 12 months," Wamp said.

The WAMP initiative has successfully convened 35 institutions across the Tennessee Valley to better equip current and future students and workers with the critical job skills needed by federal facilities within the Tennessee Valley.

"There is an urgent need for our federal facilities to find qualified high-skilled replacement employees," Sedrick stated. "The Tennessee Valley is one of the fastest growing regions in the world for new technology investment, so it is crucial to this region that the future workforce is trained and prepared. I've been very excited to see the cooperation the WAMP initiative has already created across the Tennessee Valley - particularly among our regional community colleges and major federal employers."

Recently, Dr. Sedrick met separately with officials from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, Tennessee; and BWXT Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to help determine their existing specific scientific, technical, engineering and mathematical (STEM) job skills. Those needs are being matched up with courses offered by the region's community colleges, and any gaps in the curricula are being addressed.  The WAMP initiative has also begun forming important partnerships with key labor organizations, such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, IBEW. Through its funding, the WAMP Initiative is able to provide courses as well as training space to IBEW, helping their members receive critical skills needed by program logic controllers, electrical networking and others in the information technology workforce.

"IBEW enthusiastically supports the WAMP Initiative and we look forward to working with Dr. Sedrick and seeing this initiative grow into an ultimate win for labor, government and business throughout the region, said Bobby Klein, International Vice President for the Tenth District of IBEW. "I applaud the Tennessee Valley Corridor for taking a leadership role on this very important issue."

The WAMP Initiative is one of ten Tennessee Valley Corridor Ventures established under the leadership of the Tennessee Valley's congressional delegation and Corridor's board of directors. These Ventures set forth specific opportunities and recommendations to capitalize on and leverage the Valley's unique scientific and technological resources.

The next Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit will be held in Knoxville/Oak Ridge, Tennessee and will focus on new federal and regional challenges related to homeland security, transportation, regional air quality and high-tech manufacturing.

For more interviews or for more detailed information about the WAMP initiative, please call Dr. Greg Sedrick at 423-643-0100.