Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development

Wednesday, March 13, 2001 Governor Scott McCallum Secretary Jennifer Reinert

News Media Contact Teresa Weidemann-Smith 608/266-3999 e-mail: news@dwd.state.wi.us fax: 608/266-1784

MADISON - Gov. Scott McCallum announced today that the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) and the Racine County Workforce Development Center (WDC) have received awards recognizing them as the best in the nation for addressing workforce needs.

DWD is the recipient of the Building a World Class Workforce Award and WDC received the Pyramid Prize Award in recognition of excellence, innovation and success in workforce investment strategies. The U.S. Department of Labor and National Association of State Workforce Agencies jointly presented the awards.

“Wisconsin traditionally has been a leader when it comes to meeting the needs of our workforce,” Gov. McCallum said. “These awards are recognition of the excellent job the state and counties are doing in reaching out to the workforce and making sure that staff are ready to provide the services that connect people to jobs.”

Gov. McCallum congratulated Roger Gantzarow of DWD’s Division of Workforce Solutions for receiving the Building a World Class Workforce Award for creating a training curriculum for Job Center staff statewide. More than 400 Job Center workers have been trained during the last two years at no cost to the centers. Both staff and management have indicated that Job Center workers are better prepared to serve customers.

Gov. McCallum also congratulated WDC for receiving the Pyramid Prize Award for improving customer service. Racine County was recognized for integrating staff and resources into the Workforce Development Center, where job seekers and employers have one-stop access to services and resources. More than 1,000 people get services at the center each week, and more than 8,000 access jobs on the Internet. In addition, 78 employers currently use WDC as their only means of getting applications for jobs within their companies.

Both agencies received a $25,000 award from the U.S. Employment Service to expand upon the successes achieved by their programs.

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