St. Cloud State University, in partnership with Pinnacle Climate Technologies earned a $50,000 training grant. This grant was awarded to SCSU from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) recently under the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership.

Under this grant, SCSU works with businesses, educational institutions and nonprofit organizations to train or retrain workers, expand work opportunities and keep high-quality jobs in the region.

The MJSP grants are intended to have three outcomes:

• The incumbent worker is gaining skills they can carry with them
• The company is gaining a stronger workforce with enhanced skills specific to their industry
• SCSU gains increased capacity to develop and deliver new programming that can be used by other businesses

Pinnacle Climate Technologies provides climate control solutions to commercial, industrial, agricultural, and retail customers throughout the world.  Pinnacle Climate Technologies is positioned as a global leader in heating, cooling, and ventilation, exhaust, and indoor air quality products. They are a global leader with clients in 60 countries and experiencing rapid growth.  Pinnacle has locations in Sauk Rapids and Eden Prairie, MN.

The MJSP-supported training grant enables the company to strengthen this growth by creating a culture of learning, develop leadership and product management skills.

SCSU’s Professional and Continuing Education department (PACE) offers professional development and customized training. PACE has partnered with 19 companies on grants totaling over $4.6 million serving nearly 6,000 employees with professional and continuing education customized to their industry.