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Detroit gets ready to train up workers for coming FCA Jeep job boom

DETROIT — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles this week announced a $4.5 billion investment that would bring 6,500 new manufacturing jobs to Detroit and its suburbs and, nearly two years before the first new vehicles will even roll off the line, the city already is taking steps to ensure it can provide enough workers with the needed skills. Detroit's economy was once dominated by automotive manufacturing, but since the industry's gradual migration from the metro area it has suffered among the highest poverty and unemployment rates in the country. Not long ago, Detroit was struggling to provide basic services, culminating in bankruptcy in 2013. Providing job training then would have been a tall order. But in its recovery, the city has overhauled its training programs and slowly built a track record for preparing people for specific jobs. "We're not starting from scratch," Jeff Donofrio, the city's executive director of workforce development, said Wednesday, a day after the Italian-American automaker announced its plan . "We want to make sure we're prepared for all the ... jobs that will come to the city as a result of the investments." The city works with two high schools, a community college and a workforce development organization, in partnerships with the auto union and companies, to tailor training programs for positions in manufacturing, construction, information technology and health care. Detroit worked closely with global auto parts supplier Flex-N-Gate to ensure Detroiters were handed jobs when the company last year opened a plant in what officials described as the largest investment in the city in two decades. The city and company developed customized training with the nonprofit Focus: Hope, which prioritizes workforce development and education. "About 250 individuals went through that training and a vast majority were hired by Flex-N-Gate," Donofrio said. With tax breaks and land acquisitions still to be hammered out, Fiat Chrysler's specific workforce needs have yet to be revealed. But Donofrio insists that the city has a growing force of eligible workers: Detroit last year enrolled about 2,500 people in training leading to a credential for a specific job, up from about 700 two years earlier. Some prospective FCA jobs could be offered to laid-off Fiat Chrysler workers or those already working for the company on a temporary basis, and United Auto Workers officials say many of them are already in Detroit.

Lapo Elkann calls out Renault Twingo for copying Fiat 500 [w/poll]

Small cars are becoming big business, especially for European automakers that are amping up the style. But is each new Euro city car's style unique?
Lapo Elkann is calling that into question. The brother of Fiat chairman John Elkann and the grandson of his late predecessor Gianni Agnelli is known as much as a style icon as he is for his work within the Fiat Group, which he has served in various capacities. He's combined the two by birthing various special editions of the Fiat 500 like the Gucci edition (to say nothing of his own denim-clad Ferraris), but now his eye is fixed on another European city car: the new Renault Twingo.
Posting photos of both vehicles on his Facebook page, Lapo is calling Renault out for what he sees as copying the Cinquecento's design.

FCA to add Coupe to Fiat Roadster Lineup | Autoblog Minute

A Fiat 124 Coupe could be coming as soon as next year. A look at the Rally edition gives us an idea of what a Fiata with a hardtop might look like. Fiat Coupe Autoblog Minute Videos Original Video FCA fiat 124 coupe