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ARAPAHOE COUNTY —A new county program seeks to get young people hired in jobs in which their training costs will be covered.

The Maximizing Area Talent for Competitive Hires program of the Arapahoe/Douglas Works! can provide up to $6,000 in training costs to small, medium and large businesses for workers aged 18-21. Employees are prescreened to match the needs of companies.

Participating companies pledge to do on-the-job hiring for the young employee and are reimbursed training costs up to 90 percent as a small business, up to 75 percent for medium-sized businesses and up to 50 percent for larger businesses.

Caren Swales with Collbran Job Corps, and a member of the Arapahoe/Douglas Works! investment board, said a lot of the young people she meets are scared that they don’t know everything when they first start a job, and the MATCH program makes sure they don’t fall behind when starting one.

“Now they might look at a young person and think they need a helping hand, and ‘I can do it because I’m getting a little bit of money to help me work with them in the MATCH program,’ ” Swales said.

Qualifying businesses must have been operating in Colorado for at least 120 days, pay into workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance programs, and must not have laid off employees within the past six months. According to Cassandra Snow, MATCH program coordinator for Arapahoe/Douglas Works!, the program has placed four youth in part-time or full-time positions paying at least $12 an hour.

In addition to young people, the program is available for people who are under-skilled, unemployed and individuals who lack work experience in certain industries and occupations.

“Not only are businesses growing and expanding their workforce by hiring new employees, but these new hires are acquiring skills within the workplace that they otherwise may not have had an opportunity to obtain without this program,” Snow said in an e-mail.

Another goal of the program, which started in June, is to alleviate unemployment, which is 6.4 percent in Arapahoe County as of Aug. 5.

Only targeted industries such as aerospace, aviation, bioscience, broadband, health care, information technology, finance and hospitality can qualify for the full $6,000 while nontargeted industries can receive up to $3,000 depending on size.

For more information, call 303-636-1160 or visit