PARIS – Laid-off ICT Group workers attended a Tuesday meeting at the South Paris Career Center to hear about a federal grant entitling them to several thousand dollars’ worth of job-training benefits.

The 29 former employees of the Oxford call center, which closed in March, are among about 70 employees eligible to receive help under a $397,740 National Emergency Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Career Center counselor Heidi Hamann emphasized that the training help is available to all employees who were laid off when the call center moved its operation overseas.

“Keep in mind this grant is specific to ICT people” at the Oxford location, Hamann said. Even if some of the workers have found work elsewhere, they can take courses to upgrade their skills and meet the needs of their employers.

Many of the laid-off workers attending Tuesday’s meeting were hoping to be hired by a new call center company that is negotiating to lease the former ICT Group space on Route 26 from building owner John Schiavi.

Schiavi customized the building’s interior to serve the telemarketing industry when ICT Group moved in six years ago. A debt-collection agency leases the rear portion of the building.

Hamann said the emergency grant funds, which are tailored to meet each person’s needs, could pay for classes, child care, travel and other services for up to two years “to make sure you can keep this job” at the new, unnamed company.

The company is awaiting word on a government contract before committing to the Oxford location, said Barb Olson, vice president of the Growth Council of Oxford Hills.

The Career Center has already talked to other former ICT Group workers about the grant, and will meet with others in the future, said Jim Trundy, program operations manager for Western Maine Community Action, which operates Career Centers in Maine.

“If we don’t reach all the people, the (unused) funds will be sent back,” Trundy said. “The unfortunate thing in requesting targeted funds is that they can only be used for the population they are targeted for.”

But Trundy said the job training benefits are likely to be seen as an incentive to the company planning to locate in the former ICT space.

“It’s nice when we can do customized training for an employer,” he said. As for the workers, “we try to tailor the kind of training and services around what they need.”