During a visit to a company in Baltimore, Governor O’Malley highlighted a new job training program that was enacted during the 2013 session.  The Employment Advancement Right Now Program plans to start taking applications for funding in the fall.

As reported by the Washington Post:

The measure creates a $4.5 million competitive grant program aimed at creating job-training partnerships for targeted industries that have a high demand for skilled workers.

O’Malley acknowledged that the initial appropriation for the program is modest but hinted at future expansion, saying “a lot of times things start small to get them in the budget.”

He called the EARN program, as it is known, “the wave of the future when it comes to workforce development.”