HERNDON, Va., Jan. 18, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Logicon Inc., a Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) company, will support the Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of State. The one-year agreement is valued at approximately $6 million.
The Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program was created in 1998 by U.S. Rep. James Walsh of New York. Under the program, also known as the Walsh Visa Program, participants from Northern Ireland and six designated border counties in the Republic of Ireland come to the United States for training, employment and to experience coexistence and professional and personal development in a diverse society.
Program participants work in the U.S. for up to three years and then return home to contribute to the economic regeneration of their homelands and to the Irish Peace Process. The first participants came to the U.S. in March 2000 and 359 have arrived to date.
Logicon was selected as the administrator of the program's start-up phase in October 1999 and supported the program's definition, development and implementation. Specifically, Logicon helped coordinate the placement, processing, certification, orientation, reception and employment of participants. Two U.S. hubs, Washington, D.C., and Colorado Springs, Colo., were established to provide services and assistance to program participants.
"Logicon has gained invaluable experience during the start-up phase of the program and we are well-positioned to support the program's growth and expansion in the coming year," said Fred Welch, Logicon program manager.
Under the cooperative agreement, new U.S. hubs are planned in Boston, Mass., and Pittsburgh, Pa. A hub in Syracuse, N.Y., is also under consideration. In addition to the hubs, Logicon will establish a presence in Northern Ireland to assist the Republic of Ireland's Training and Employment Authority and Northern Ireland's Training and Employment Agency in pre-departure training.
The Walsh Visa Program is focused on nine business sectors in which personnel or skills shortages exist in Ireland and Northern Ireland or where strong future growth and/or new investment is expected. These sectors include hospitality and tourism; customer service; information and communications technologies; pharmaceuticals; engineering; sales, marketing and promotion; agriculture and horticulture diversification; food processing and furniture.
In the U.S., Logicon identifies domestic companies interested in providing jobs and participating in the program that have business in one or more of these nine sectors and operations near hub cities. Currently, companies such as Alexandria Financial Associates, Axcelis, The Broadmoor Hotel, DebtWorks, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, Marriott Corporation, Micrometals, Nextel.com, Omni Shoreham Hotel, Protocol, Swissotel, Metrocall, Vialog, Wells Fargo/Servus Financial and Winstar are participating in the program.
"While many of the tasks we will perform in the next phase of the program are similar to those done during start-up, we believe we have made modifications in the training and participant support processes that will improve the program's effectiveness," said Mr. Welch. "Pre-departure training has been lengthened to eight weeks, staff and fiscal resources at the hub sites have been increased, and we have added teammates with the knowledge and experience to help make the program more successful."
The teaming partners with Logicon include the Irish Immigration Center of Boston, which will serve as the Boston Hub manager; the Ireland Institute of Pittsburgh, which will serve as the Pittsburgh Hub manager; and George Mason University, Fairfax, Va., which will develop the curriculum for Conflict Resolution Training and conduct this training for participants in the U.S.
Logicon is a leader in advanced information technologies, systems and services. Headquartered in Herndon, Logicon has approximately 14,000 employees and 2000 sales of nearly $1.7 billion.
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