BOISE — A north central Idaho foundry and an Eastern Idaho industrial training firm will share funds in the amount of $167,000 they received from the Workforce Development Training Fund so they can expand their payrolls.

    Porter House Inc. in Shelley will receive up to $22,250 to help pay for the hiring of a new training coordinator, a training specialist and two technical specialists. The rate of pay for the jobs range from $15-$28 an hour.

    The company provides training in industrial safety, waste management, decommissioning and decontamination, as well as radiation protection and professional development.

    Idaho’s Workforce Development Training Fund, financed by employers through a three percent set-aside on unemployment insurance taxes, reimburses companies for the costs of training employees for new jobs if the jobs pay at least $12 an hour and include employer-provided health care. Reimbursements can also be made for training workers who face layoff from their current jobs if their skills are not upgraded.

    Companies must produce products or services that are marketed outside of their region of operation or be in the health care sector to be eligible.

     Since its inception in 1996, the fund has reimbursed 200 companies over $38 million for training almost 20,000 workers.