Five Pierce County community and technical colleges are partnering in a new venture to provide businesses a single source for workforce training.

To introduce the new Invista Performance Solutions to the community, the schools are hosting a free luncheon Jan. 18 that focuses on how businesses can foster innovation in their organizations. Keynote speaker is Braden Kelley, a well-known blogger on innovation and author of Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire.

Lisa Edwards, Invista’s global solutions officer, said the new organization’s aim is to be a one-stop organization for workforce development programming.

Invista can call on the resources of five Pierce County post-secondary schools, Tacoma Community College, Bates Technical College, Clover Park Technical College and the two Pierce College campuses in Lakewood and Puyallup to provide training for workers.

Those schools offer several kinds of training from leadership and management training to industrial and technical skills and software training.

The five-college group can also reach outside the Tacoma area for additional training as a member of the Global Corporate College, a group of dozens of higher education institutions throughout the country and Canada.

The idea for Invista originated with the Legislature’s call for colleges to cut costs and improve services to the business community.

The schools are already offering innovative training aimed at satisfy business training needs, said Edwards.

The schools, for instance, have taught sign language to Boeing workers who do their jobs in a noisy environment where they wear ear protection. The sign language skills allow them to communicate without removing their protective gear.

Other employers have asked the schools to teach management workers to speak Spanish to allow them to communicate with Hispanic employees. Still other companies have enrolled their immigrant workers in English classes to help them talk with fellow workers.

Those interested in attending the introductory seminar should call Invista at 253-566-5189 or contact the organization at jamie@invistaperformancesolutions.org for reservations by Jan. 8. The program will begin at 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 18 and last until 1 p.m. at the Clover Park Technical College Conference Center.