Eleven New Mexico Companies Awarded State Job Training Funds in July

Category: Non-Local News Releases Non-Local News Releases
Published: 17 July 2024 17 July 2024

$1.2 Million Allocated to Train up to 93 New Employees Statewide
SANTA FE, N.M. – The New Mexico Economic Development Department (EDD) approved its monthly allocations of job training funds at the July 2024 Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP) board meeting. EDD Acting Secretary Mark Roper announced that eleven companies applied for nearly $1.2 million this month, in preparation for hiring and training up to 93 new employees.

JTIP is a tool used by the state to encourage relocation, growth, and hiring within New Mexico. Companies are reimbursed a percentage of eligible trainee expenses once training has been completed. The reimbursement percentages are designed to incentivize hiring in rural and frontier locations, hiring New Mexico higher education graduates and Veterans, and other criteria. The board meets monthly to approve applications during a public meeting in which companies can provide additional information to back up their request.

"The JTIP program is an essential tool for supporting communities and businesses as they move our economy forward," Roper said. "Employers from across the state are creating high-quality jobs for New Mexicans."

This month, JTIP funding was provided to companies located in Albuquerque, Deming, Las Cruces, Los Alamos, Placitas, Roswell, and Santa Fe. The eleven applicants are:

Century Sign Builders, Albuquerque, 2 trainees with an average wage of $24. Total award is $25,424.
Century Sign Builders designs, manufactures, and installs interior and exterior signage nationwide. The company handles signage from design to installation and guarantees its work for the life of the building.

ErgoTech Systems, Inc., Los Alamos, 2 trainees with an average wage of $45. Total award is $52,398.
ErgoTech develops software to be used by engineers with little or no programming or software development skills to build applications for collecting data, monitoring industrial equipment and machinery, and displaying the values from these processes and machines on user interfaces.

Higher Cultures LLC, Las Cruces, 7 trainees with an average wage of $21. Total award is $50,130.
Higher Cultures aims to provide the best quality cannabis products in New Mexico, to run a responsible and profitable business, and to create quality jobs in the communities in which they operate. Higher Cultures New Mexico is focused on manufacturing, the area the company has the most experience in.

Little Toad Creek, LLC (DBA: Little Toad Creek Brewery and Distillery), Deming, 9 trainees with an average wage of $19. Total award is $91,782.
Little Toad Creek operates a nano-brewery and distillery, a seasonal rural hotel, restaurant, and tasting room, and a year-round restaurant and tasting room in downtown Silver City. Since 2014, the company has experienced a steady growth in sales and beer production has tripled.

Molten Salt Solutions, LLC, Santa Fe, 3 trainees with an average wage of $43. Total award is $72,339.
Molten Salt Solutions provides advanced materials – specifically, isotopically enriched materials – that will be required by companies commercializing new nuclear power generation technologies. The company's core technology, developed in collaboration with LANL, is a novel approach to liquid-liquid extraction of isotopes.

New Mexico Consortium (NMC), Los Alamos, 2 trainees with an average wage of $47. Total award is $54,880.
NMC is a partnership between the three New Mexico Universities and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The company collaborates with scientific and educational institutions to support research and education. NMC's efforts include research that addresses global, national, and local environmental issues, with a current focus on solar energy, high-performance computing, food security, and biofuels.

Pajarito Powder LLC, Albuquerque, 4 trainees with an average wage of $32. Total award is $73,055.
Pajarito Powder is a privately held LLC, funded by Verge Fund, Omphalos Venture Partners, assorted angel investors, Hyundai Motor Company, and Bekaert Corporation. Their primary products include Engineered Catalyst Supports™ (ECS products) and Platinum Group Metal (PGM) catalysts for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV), advanced catalysts for electrolyzers, Engineered Electrolyzer Catalysts™ (EEC products), and Precious Metal Free™ (PMF) catalysts that are entirely free of PGMs.

Pecos Valley Production, Inc. (PVP), Roswell, 55 trainees with an average wage of $21. Total award is $674,232.
PVP runs a cannabis cultivation campus and takes a wide collection of products from different manufacturers. PVP provides innovative cannabis products to customers and works to spread awareness about cannabis. The company has 21 dispensary locations in 11 NM counties. PVP also offers one-to-one consultations.

Securin, Inc., Albuquerque, 3 trainees with an average wage of $22. Total award is $21,600.
In 2022, Cyber Security Works (CSW) acquired Securin, Inc., a leading provider of tech-enabled cybersecurity solutions, helping customers worldwide gain resilience against emerging threats. Securin provides customers with a comprehensive suite of security solutions such as ASM, VI, Vulnerability Management, and Penetration Testing to level up their security.

The Grow NM Inc., Placitas, 5 trainees with an average wage of $17. Total award is $37,650.
The Grow NM was established recently as the new name for the gardening operations of Leaf & Flower NM. The company has four indoor gardening operations, a packaging department, and seven retail store locations and now has a Vertically Integrated Cannabis Establishment (VICE) license.

UbiQD, Inc., Los Alamos, 1 trainee with average wage of $72. Total amended award is $41,252.
UbiQD is an advanced materials company that manufactures high-performance cadmium-free quantum dots and composite materials. UbiQD offers products that utilize quantum dots which are incredibly small pieces of material with photoluminescence referring to the light emitted from matter that can be tuned based on size. Quantum dots are known for their near-perfect ability to convert one color of light into another.


To learn more about the JTIP program, please visit EDD's website at EDD.NewMexico.gov/JTIP.

Content on the Beat

WARNING: All articles and photos with a byline or photo credit are copyrighted to the author or photographer. You may not use any information found within the articles without asking permission AND giving attribution to the source. Photos can be requested and may incur a nominal fee for use personally or commercially.

Disclaimer: If you find errors in articles not written by the Beat team but sent to us from other content providers, please contact the writer, not the Beat. For example, obituaries are always provided by the funeral home or a family member. We can fix errors, but please give details on where the error is so we can find it. News releases from government and non-profit entities are posted generally without change, except for legal notices, which incur a small charge.

NOTE: If an article does not have a byline, it was written by someone not affiliated with the Beat and then sent to the Beat for posting.

Images: We have received complaints about large images blocking parts of other articles. If you encounter this problem, click on the title of the article you want to read and it will take you to that article's page, which shows only that article without any intruders. 

New Columnists: The Beat continues to bring you new columnists. And check out the old faithfuls who continue to provide content.

Newsletter: If you opt in to the Join GCB Three Times Weekly Updates option above this to the right, you will be subscribed to email notifications with links to recently posted articles.

Submitting to the Beat

Those new to providing news releases to the Beat are asked to please check out submission guidelines at https://www.grantcountybeat.com/about/submissions. They are for your information to make life easier on the readers, as well as for the editor.

Advertising: Don't forget to tell advertisers that you saw their ads on the Beat.

Classifieds: We have changed Classifieds to a simpler option. Check periodically to see if any new ones have popped up. Send your information to editor@grantcountybeat.com and we will post it as soon as we can. Instructions and prices are on the page.

Editor's Notes

It has come to this editor's attention that people are sending information to the Grant County Beat Facebook page. Please be aware that the editor does not regularly monitor the page. If you have items you want to send to the editor, please send them to editor@grantcountybeat.com. Thanks!

Here for YOU: Consider the Beat your DAILY newspaper for up-to-date information about Grant County. It's at your fingertips! One Click to Local News. Thanks for your support for and your readership of Grant County's online news source—www.grantcountybeat.com

Feel free to notify editor@grantcountybeat.com if you notice any technical problems on the site. Your convenience is my desire for the Beat.  The Beat totally appreciates its readers and subscribers!  

Compliance: Because you are an esteemed member of The Grant County Beat readership, be assured that we at the Beat continue to do everything we can to be in full compliance with GDPR and pertinent US law, so that the information you have chosen to give to us cannot be compromised.