§ 201. Administration. 1. There is hereby established within the
department an economic development skills training program to provide
and leverage skills development training for economic development
purposes. The department shall provide assistance to applicants for the
purpose of assisting individual businesses and industries in providing
skills training services.

2. The department shall:

(a) coordinate with the department of education, the department of
labor, the state university of New York, the city university and service
delivery areas as established pursuant to the federal job training
partnership act (P.L. 97-300) in order to carry out the purposes of this
article and to complement and leverage related training resources
consistent with the purposes described herein;

(b) upon the recommendation of the interagency review committee,
execute and monitor grants and contracts to carry out the purposes of
this article or authorize grants and contracts to be executed and
monitored by the department of labor for projects which provide
on-the-job training reimbursements to businesses as described in this
article and for such labor exchange and other related services as are
agreed upon by the agencies, by the state education department for
projects which provide classroom based training which will be delivered
by school districts, boards of cooperative educational services and
private degree-granting institutions of higher education and by the
state university or the city university for projects which provide
classroom based training which will be delivered by community colleges,
agricultural and technical colleges, and public degree-granting
institutions of higher education or authorize such other arrangements
as, upon the recommendation of the interagency review committee, the
commissioner determines will advance the purposes of this program;

(c) promote awareness of the economic development skills training
program among businesses, business organizations, and regional and local
economic development agencies with the assistance of the appropriate
state agencies;

(d) notify the appropriate private industry council established
pursuant to the federal job training partnership act (P.L. 97-300) of
any assistance provided pursuant to this article;

(e) ensure that at least fifty percent of the moneys available for the
purposes of this program shall be used to assist businesses employing
two hundred or fewer workers; and

(f) ensure that at least fifty percent of the moneys made available
shall be expended for the purpose of assisting targeted individuals as
defined in section two hundred of this article or to provide skills
upgrading for currently employed individuals which results in new jobs
created which are filled with targeted individuals.

3. The interagency review committee shall meet regularly to review
program progress and recommend measures to improve program coordination
of training policy and program delivery, to increase the potential for
leveraging of funds, to develop an evaluation program to be conducted on
a periodic basis and, within thirty days from receipt of a proposal,
make recommendations to the commissioner on all such projects which
exceed twenty-five thousand dollars in funds provided pursuant to this
article. Any project not acted upon by the committee within such time
period may be acted upon by the commissioner.