About Us

Who we are: Job Growers Incorporated is a non-profit organization and the local workforce investment board serving Marion, Polk, and Yamhill counties. A board of directors, with a federally-mandated 50 percent plus one membership from the private sector, governs the overall workforce investment policies of Job Growers.

What we offer businesses and the community: Our core mission is to grow economic vitality through forward thinking, collaborative partnerships with economic development, education, and other organizations, and wise investments in human potential. We help businesses find workforce solutions so that they can provide the good jobs our residents need to thrive. We facilitate skills training and career readiness for adults, and connect youth to business and career opportunities, so that they enter the competitive job market and become assets to local businesses and the community.

We support businesses in a variety of ways, including five business consortia; Mid-Valley Food Processors Consortium, High Performance Consortium, Metals Consortium, Secondary Woods Consortium, and the Mid-Valley Staffing Association. These consortia provide opportunities for member businesses to collaborate, leverage scarce resources and create coordinated solutions to workforce problems. Consortia-sponsored workforce trainings are scheduled throughout the year for member businesses and their employees. Membership in Job Growers Consortia is open to any local business.

Additional training resources available to businesses include Amatrol (an online training that trains a person to work with machinery); entry level Metals and Secondary Woods Industries Credentials kits; a safety training;  the National Career Readiness Certificate, which tests and grades entry level job skills; Rapid Response teams to help businesses and their employees dealing with layoffs or closures; and on-the-job training packages that can reimburse up to 50 percent of a trainee’s gross earnings during the training period.

Job Growers partners with the Oregon Employment Department to staff WorkSource Oregon Centers in Salem, Woodburn, Dallas and McMinnville. In the Centers, county residents find help with skill level assessments, access to many on-line trainings, assistance with career decision-making, access to scholarship funds to help pay for job training, and help with all aspects of job search. Each Center maintains a monthly calendar of skills and job-search-related workshops. Center services are available to the public free of charge after completing a registration process.  

Youth Programs: Job Growers manages four contractors providing services to in-school and out-of-school youth aged 16 to 21 in the three-county area. Youth program staff  help remove barriers to youth self-sufficiency and work with youth who might be teen parents, homeless, have felony records, or live in poverty. Services to youth include help with earning a high school diploma or GED, specialized skill building and internship experiences in local businesses.

Specialized Programs: Job Growers Incorporated has a training program for residents interested in careers in the following health care entry level occupations; certified nursing assistant levels one and two, licensed practical nurse, and medical assistant. There are also specialized programs for those wishing to be trained in green jobs, and jobs having to do with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). 

Trends: Skills and education will be increasingly essential to getting a good job. This workforce trend has been developing slowly over the last 30 years, and as we recover from the recession, will become more important than ever. When a college education is not required, long term training is likely to be the requirement to access a job with good wages. Training and apprenticeship programs will become more important, more popular, and more competitive. A related trend is a need for employees to be continually learning new skills as technological change continues to transform the way we do business.