Gov. Jim Doyle announced Friday under the state’s Trade Adjustment Assistance program, 315 displaced workers from the Chrysler engine plant in Kenosha will be eligible to apply for additional re-employment and training services.

In May, Chrysler announced plans to close its Kenosha plant by the end of next year. The Kenosha plant employs about 800 workers.

Similar to the Chrysler assembly plant in Sterling Heights, Mich., the workers were displaced due to imports, according to a statement from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

The statement also said the program will give the displaced workers a chance to better their job skills and find new employment opportunities.

“[This is] an outsourcing of American workers,” said Sen. Robert Jauch, D-Poplar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Children and Families and Workforce Development.

In a DWD statement released Friday, Doyle outlined the importance of the TAA program.

“The employment and training services now available to these workers will help them re-enter the workforce and support themselves and their families,” Doyle said.

Jauch agreed, stating “[The program] is not only important to the worker, but also the families of those affected.”

The DWD, whose responsibilities include providing job services, training and employment, will be heading the program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, according to the DWD statement.

Specifically for the displaced Kenosha workers, they are now able to apply for services such as training for employment in other work areas, income support, job search allowance and relocation allowances.

Jauch agreed with the program’s goal in developing workers’ skills in light of the current economic condition.

The DWD statement also said the program will assist the workers with income support and allowing expenses when proceeding to a different area of employment.

“These are services that we and our local partners can provide affected workers, to help connect them with employers in search of workers with the right skills,” DWD Secretary Roberta Gassman said in the statement.

According to a statement from Doyle, DOL expanded the amount of nationwide TAA funds available this past June from $220 million to $575 million, nearly $15 million of which went to Wisconsin.

According to the DOL, the TAA funds are put toward training of jobs involved with the Green Job Initiative, which currently stands at 8.5 million jobs.