HEBER VALLEY, Utah — Many local businesses all over Utah are struggling to hire and keep workers, said Dallin Koecher, Executive Director of Heber Valley Tourism and Economic Development.
“It really came out of a need back during the COVID times and right after when labor was really tight, right? And so we were trying to figure out ways to get people back into the workforce,” he said. “A lot of people left the workforce.”
Heber Valley Tourism and Economic Development created ‘Wasatch Works’ with the Wasatch Education Foundation, a program designed to get young people back in the workforce. Through a grant from the Governor’s office, $100,000 worth of scholarships are available to working students.
“if a student wants to go to M-Tech, beauty school, a four-year school, they want to go to Utah State, University of Utah, BYU, Weber State, Yale, Harvard,” said Koecher. “Wherever they go to, they just need a post-high school education.”
Any student is eligible if they work 600 hours at a Wasatch County business over two years. That will earn them $2,000 towards their college tuition.
“It's really flexible program,” said Koecher. “Some students can't work during the school year, or some can put a lot of hours during the summer and some don't, so it allows that flexibility to do it on their time ,but also it helps put students into the workforce and keep them in the workforce.”
Koecher hopes sophomores and juniors will start looking at getting a job now to apply for the spring scholarships.
“We want to give it to students who may be first-generation college students, who are or have some socio-economic hurdles to come over,” he said. “We want to try to help those students first.”
Wasatch Works is also accepting donations to continue funding the scholarship program.
You can find out more here.
