(Podcast) Anticipating and Responding to a Pandemic Influenza – One Stop Career Centers have a Role to Play
This Podcast offers a glimpse into the webinar moderated by Janet Sten. The actual Webinar discusses ETA’s preparation, readiness activities, and the roles the Workforce Investment System may be asked to play to assist in the nation's response to this serious threat. Please review the actual Webinar recording on workforce3one for a more in depth review of this Webinar. Related Resources: Completed webinar recording: http://www.workforce3one.org/view/3000926041307962593/info Presentation: http://www.workforce3one.org/view/2000925734540714965/info
Posted On :
01/14/10 08:04AM
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345
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67
Award-Winning City of Long Beach Youth-Driven Career Center Program
The National League of Cities (NLC) recently recognized the City of Long Beach’s Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network with a Gold Award for Municipal Excellence. Long Beach earned the award for Creating a Youth-Driven Career Center program. The Creating a Youth-Driven Career Center program is a reinvention of the Network’s youth service strategies, which focuses on providing opportunities to engage youth in the design and creation of physical spaces, outreach messages, collateral materials, actual products, key policy-making, and critical community connections. Related Resource: Finance Project’s Clearinghouse for on Expanding and Sustaining Youth Programs and Policieshttp://www.servicelearning.org/etrcncs-link/?popup_id=1685
Posted On :
12/08/09 11:41AM
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459
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126
Green Jobs Innovation in Portland, Oregon
Portland's program, called Clean Energy Works Portland, creates a Recovery Act-funded revolving loan fund that will enable Portland homeowners to take out long-term, low-interest loans and repay them through small additions to their utility bills. Green for All has partnered with the City of Portland to implement an innovative green jobs program that aims to retrofit 100,000 homes for energy efficiency while creating new green jobs and economic opportunities for low-income residents of the city. Grantee: Portland YouthBuilders (PYB) Location of Grant Activities: Oregon Amount: $100,000 Key Partnerships: Oregon Employment Department, Southeast Works OneStop Career Center, Portland Community College, the Oregon Institute of Technology, and the Oregon Employer Workforce Training Fund Project Description: Portland Youth Builders (PYB) will expand its current greenjobs training program to prepare low-income youth for entry-level obs and advanced training in the following energy efficient and renewable energy industries: energy efficient construction, weatherization, solar and wind energy, sustainable agriculture, and residential and commercial retrofitting. Project Outcomes: Key modifications will be made to the PYB programs including the development of a weatherization pathway, the development of a green internship program, the enhancement of existing green curriculum based on feedback from the Energy Trust of Oregon, the establishment of key partnerships with PostSecondary institutions and local green employers, and the construction of PYBbuilt Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified homes. Contact: Jill Walters Portland YouthBuilders 4816 SE 92 nd Avenue Portland, OR 97266
Posted On :
12/08/09 11:35AM
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483
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132
State Policy Resources for Supporting Adults’ Postsecondary Success
In early November 2009, the National College Transition Network hosted the Policy Forum “Shifting Adult Education Policies to Support Postsecondary Success.” The Forum explored policy changes being pursued by six Midwestern states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) to create pathways to postsecondary education and family-sustaining careers (“middle-skill” and high-skill occupations) for low-income working adults. These states are part of the Joyce Foundation’s “Shifting Gears” initiative, which was launched in 2006 to promote regional economic growth by improving the education and skills training of the workforce. Shifting Gears grew out of the recognition that many adults lack the skills and postsecondary credentials necessary to obtain the new jobs emerging in the wake of the decline of traditional Midwestern industrial and manufacturing sectors. The initiative is helping these states implement significant, systemic policy changes to institutionalize innovation in adult education, workforce development, and postsecondary education programs and to strengthen the connections among these various programs. Click here for other related resources:
Posted On :
11/20/09 01:13PM
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426
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90
NGA Center for Best Practices Offers State-by-State Green Economy Profiles
The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) commissioned Collaborative Economics Inc. (CEI) to prepare a profile of each state’s "green" economy. The profiles provide a comprehensive picture of each state’s existing assets across multiple green sectors and offer a foundation for identifying future green growth areas and related needs. Profiles discuss areas such as green business activity, employment concentration, technology innovation, and sector information.
Posted On :
11/04/09 10:14AM
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1026
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603
New York City Green Collar Jobs Roadmap
The Center for American progress has released a new resource entitled “New York City Green Collar Jobs Roadmap.” The Roadmap is a product of the Green Collar Jobs Roundtable, which was convened by Urban Agenda. The Roundtable was a participatory effort of over 170 job-training organizations, community-based programs, businesses, and labor unions that compiled data on green jobs and workforce development best practices while developing more than 30 recommendations for achieving the shared vision of a more sustainable, prosperous, and just New York City. The Roadmap includes recommendations related to green economic development, talent engagement and development, job creation, employer engagement, and partner collaboration.
Posted On :
10/30/09 01:14PM
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613
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157
Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership Mobile Outreach Skills Training Program
The Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) operates an innovative accelerated job creation and job training program called Mobile Outreach Skills Training, or MOST. The MOST program is a two-week, intensive job training and placement program that “fast-tracks” Florida’s most-in-need job seekers into skilled, entry-level positions in the aerospace, biotechnology, electronics, plastics, pharmaceuticals, precision metal, construction, energy efficiency/conservation, and renewable energy manufacturing sectors. Successful trainees are awarded a Lean to Green Institute Sustainable Manufacturing Certificate, helping them become an integral part of their employers’ green initiatives.
Posted On :
10/28/09 09:43AM
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686
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223
New Trade Adjustment Assistance Research Reports Available
The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) recently released four new reports related to the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. The reports are part of a longer-term project to conduct a national net-impact evaluation of the TAA program. The new reports include: Initial Implementation of the Trade Act of 2002; Assessment, Case Management, and Post-Training Assistance; Linkages Between TAA, One-Stop Career Center Partners, and Economic Development Agencies; and Rapid Response and TAA. All four reports are available through the ETA Research Publication Database.
Posted On :
10/27/09 02:42PM
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511
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118
New Publication on Career Pathway Models and Programs
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for a Competitive Workforce (ICW) and the National Career Pathways Network (NCPN) have released a joint publication, Thriving in Challenging Times: Connecting Education to Economic Development Through Career Pathways. This resource highlights successful career pathway models that create relevant, challenging learning environments for students and are designed to increase American employers' access to highly-skilled, qualified workers. Thriving in Challenging Times profiles 17 local and two statewide career pathways programs in multiple industry sectors, documenting the challenges, strategies, results, and business engagement each partnership has experienced.
Posted On :
10/27/09 02:30PM
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652
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210
The Workforce Strategy Center Releases New Report on Education Strategies for Disadvantaged Youth and Young Adults
The Workforce Strategy Center’s recent report, “Employers, Low-Income Young Adults, and Postsecondary Credentials: A Practical Typology for Business, Education, and Community Leaders,” highlights programs in 14 communities that are successfully addressing the challenge of providing disadvantaged youth and young adults with the technical and postsecondary education that may qualify them for skilled positions. Programs discussed in the report meet the following four basic criteria: Getting low-income youth and young adults postsecondary credentials that will allow them to enter and advance in career track employment. Working with employers in industry sectors important to the region’s economy. Maximizing employer roles and commitment. Demonstrating portability, scalability, and replicability. Programs discussed are based on a variety of models, including community-based organization models, community and technical college models, employer models, industry sector models, and social enterprise models.
Posted On :
10/27/09 02:18PM
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419
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146
Regional Council Self-Assessment and Resource Toolkit
The National Association of Development Organizations (NADO), in partnership with the Missouri Association of Councils of Governments and Development District Association of Appalachia, has published a self-assessment and resource toolkit designed to assist executive directors of regional councils, along with policy board members, in conducting an organizational analysis. This resource is intended to help regional development leaders explore the various aspects, challenges, and opportunities of governing and operating a high-performing regional council, and to evaluate their own organizations against various characteristics of successful regional councils. Other related resources: Innovation in Action articles- http://www.workforce3one.org/view/3000929249738360965
Posted On :
10/19/09 01:38PM
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597
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225
Opportunities for Rural Community and Economic Development
The Rural Sociological Society’s latest Rural Realities publication, “Homegrown Responses to Economic Uncertainty in Rural America,” explores three interconnected "homegrown" approaches for reinvigorating and growing struggling rural economies, which have been particularly hard-hit by the economic recession. The paper also offers several policy and strategic options for fostering homegrown rural development efforts. Related resources: Link to "Innovation in Action" article:http://www.workforce3one.org/view/3000929241996925905 Economic Gardening http://groups.google.com/group/econ-dev?msg=subscribe&hl=en The Farm Act of 2008 established the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program. This program will provide technical and financial assistance in the form of loans and grants to qualified Microenterprise Development Organizations (MDOs) to support microentrepreneurs in the development and ongoing success of rural microenterprises. An MDO is an organization that provides access to capital and business-based training services to very small (micro) businesses. A microentrepreneur is an owner and operator, or prospective owner and operator, of a rural business with not more than 10 full-time equivalent employees who is unable to obtain sufficient training, technical assistance, or credit. USDA’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service today has published a proposed rule in support of the implementation of this program to meet the goals and requirements of the Act. Comments are due by November 23, 2009. The October 7, 2009 FEDERAL REGISTER" contains the proposed rule.
Posted On :
10/19/09 11:34AM
/Views :
548
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151
New Tools and Resources for “Adult Education for Work” Programs
Jobs for the Future’s (JFF) Workforce and Education Policy Group, a partnership between JFF and the Workforce Development Strategy Group of the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), has released a series of four publications on adult education trends, promising practices, and opportunities. These papers seek to advance Adult Education for Work programs and strategies that help low-skilled adults obtain the skills necessary for workplace competitiveness, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of U.S. firms. http://www.jff.org/publications/workforce
Posted On :
10/19/09 11:01AM
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1009
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602
Offender Workforce Development Strategies to Reduce Re-incarceration
This publication from the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Corrections details key elements and results of an innovative Vermont program designed to reduce recidivism for offenders with poor work histories and moderate to high risk of reoffending. Vermont’s Workforce Development Program is a research-based correctional strategy that teaches offenders social and work-related skills in a “strengths-based” context that extends throughout the correctional facilities’ education, work, and living-unit settings. The program achieved significant reductions in recidivism, and helped to create a shared organizational culture among correctional staff and program participants. Other related resource: http://www.workforce3one.org/view/5456/info
Posted On :
10/09/09 01:50PM
/Views :
822
/Downloads :
390
New Strategies for Serving Unemployed “Professional” Workers
Across the country, state and local workforce systems are grappling not only with dramatically increased customer demand for services, but also with changing customer bases. In many areas, increasing numbers of laid-off “professional” or “white collar” workers are seeking reemployment assistance in One-Stop Career Centers. This article highlights several state and local efforts to implement targeted strategies to meet the particular needs of this job-seeking group.
Posted On :
10/05/09 12:56PM
/Views :
1099
/Downloads :
775
Iowa Leverages Social Networking Media to Launch Career Hub
The Iowa Coalition for Innovation and Growth has launched the Iowa Career Hub on the Facebook social networking platform. The Iowa Career Hub is designed to raise awareness about career pathways and related academic opportunities among Iowans of all ages. Through the Career Hub, Iowans can access organizations in both the public and private sectors to learn more about career opportunities and planning.
Posted On :
10/05/09 12:48PM
/Views :
948
/Downloads :
386
Award-Winning Ohio Soft Skills Training Program
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services’ Workforce Development Office has given the state’s One-Stop Best Practices Award to the WorkPlus One-Stop Center of Clark County (Springfield, Ohio) for the Center’s innovative “Rise Above” training and job placement program. The Rise Above program is designed to help unemployed individuals develop the soft skills necessary to successfully re-enter the workforce. Workforce3 One also includes a number of other profiles on “soft skills” program implementation including Delaware’s “Soft Skills Career Essentials.”
Posted On :
10/05/09 12:29PM
/Views :
1027
/Downloads :
416
New STEM Collaborative Launched in Colorado
Secondary and post-secondary education partners in Colorado have teamed to launch the Colorado Academy for the Development of STEM-related Careers (Colorado ADSC). The Colorado ADSC alliance seeks to position the state as a leader in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education, from kindergarten to the post-secondary graduate studies level, and to ready students for entry into high-growth, STEM-related industries and sectors. The collaborative will offer students training, multi-level certifications and degrees, and job placement assistance. Other related resource: TEN 23-07: Building and Sustaining an Educated and Prepared STEM Workforce
Posted On :
10/05/09 12:12PM
/Views :
884
/Downloads :
337
Stories and photos from Community Services Consortium in Oregon
This document highlights two successful Recovery Act funded initiatives from Community Services Consortium in Oregon. The Employment and Training Administration has also compiled a ten-part series of “snapshots” examining the innovative features and attributes of a number of summer youth programs across the United States.
Posted On :
09/21/09 12:56PM
/Views :
637
/Downloads :
251
NYSDOL Awards Grants to Connect Emerging and Transitional Workers to In-Demand Careers
The New York State Department of Labor has announced the award of more than $2 million in stimulus funding for a new Emerging and Transitional Worker Grant program. The grants, awarded in the Finger Lakes and Central New York regions, are part of a larger, $15 million statewide stimulus investment to give those with little or no connection to the workforce the skills necessary to successfully obtain employment and advance in their careers.
