Workforce Development

The skill training, entrepreneurial support, job training and labor assistance incorporated regional workforce development plans are well represented by these projects and programs, which demonstrate how the labor force is a key element to successful economic development.

Connecticut’s New London Development Corporation and community partners are recruiting and training unemployed and underemployed residents for the construction industry jobs through a Pilot Construction Skills Training Program. The program is designed to meet the needs of local contractors by creating a broad-based construction industry labor pool. All training is done at subsidized housing construction sites. The project was originally funded by a U.S. Department of Labor Skill Shortage Grant and is now funded by various local sources, including CDBG grants. So far all participants have found construction employment.

The Lincoln Trail Area Development District and Workforce Investment partners initiated the Leitchfield Career Center project to develop a one-stop career center and respond to increased client service demands. Career center partners offer employment and training opportunities, unemployment insurance and labor market information, as well as services geared toward businesses. Grayson County Fiscal court provided the building renovations. Workforce Investment Act incentive funds were used to improve the resource room’s technologies. The center now has the capacity to serve 1,000 customers every month.

South Delta Planning and Development District, Inc. and partners are serving and encouraging entrepreneurship development and business expansions in the 14-county Delta Workforce Investment Area by way of their Workforce Specialty Site for Entrepreneurial Skills Training project. Together, project partners, including a community college and the Delta Workforce Investment Board, are providing counseling, training and research assistance for small business management. During project year 2002, 82 clients have been served, 93 participants have attended seminars, 11 special projects have been completed, and three businesses have started.

Northwest Piedmont Council of Governments and the Mobile Drug Testing Consortium reduces the administrative costs for the federal drug testing requirements for certified driver’s license carriers. With the mobile testing unit, rather than sending employees to testing sites, the testing unit goes to the consortium member’s work site. This saves employees an average of two hours of time per test administered. Testing costs have not increased and documentation and tracking are also more efficient. Consortium members’ dues support the mobile operation.

North Carolina’s Northwest Piedmont Council of Governments’ Job Resource and Training Center Work Experience Program incorporates work experience opportunities for welfare customers who complete skill training. Training center job developers market to potential employers, the tax incentive and no-cost labor advantages of agreeing to place work experience customers. Once the customer is placed in a work experience position, the employer completes an evaluation form every week to ensure worker competency. Eighty-five percent of the work experience placements have resulted in permanent employment.

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