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Workforce Florida Weekly Update 1-11-07 |
CONTENTS The State & RegionsThe Annual 2007 Workforce Summit is coming up fast – don’t
miss out! The 2007 Workforce Summit will be held at the Hilton
Conference Center in Gainesville, Florida on January 29 – 31,
2007. Go online and check out the exciting additions and
workshop tracks that you won’t want to miss. For example – now
you can roll up your sleeves and get practical experience
with real world issues in the new expanded 2-3 hour hands-on
workshops. Two of the expanded workshops are the Internal
Controls And Fraud Protection by Wipfli and the Employ Florida
Marketplace Hands-on Workshop by Geographic Solutions. Another
addition is the Youth Practitioner workshop track. This track
is titled “Strengthening Youth Partnerships for Business
- Creating New Opportunities for Collaboration.” Crist Appoints Secretary of the Department of Corrections. TALLAHASSEE – Governor Charlie Crist today appointed Colonel James McDonough to continue his service as Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections. “During his tenure as Secretary of the Department of Corrections, Colonel McDonough has instituted a Code of Conduct for all employees,” said Governor Crist. “Colonel McDonough shares my commitment to demanding the highest level of personal and professional integrity from his staff and I am confident in his ability to continue his mission.” Colonel McDonough was appointed by Governor Bush to serve as Secretary of the Department of Corrections in February 2006. He formerly served as director of Florida’s Office of Drug Control Policy and Director of Strategy for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. “Secretary McDonough came into the agency under difficult circumstances,” said Governor Crist. “He takes his mission seriously and I would like to afford him the opportunity to see it through to completion.” Colonel McDonough is a highly decorated combat veteran retired from the United States Army. During his military career, Colonel McDonough served in many leadership positions including Brigade Senior Military Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe and Commander of the Southeastern European Task Force Infantry Brigade. He graduated from the United States Military Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I am honored to lead the Department of Corrections and am proud of the progress we have made,” said Secretary McDonough. “It is my hope that we can continue to improve this agency for the over 80,000 inmates, nearly 150,000 offenders and 27,000 employees we serve.” Revised 2007 Florida Employment/Unemployment Data Release Schedule. The Agency for Workforce Innovation Labor Market Statistics Center’s December 2006 preliminary Employment/Unemployment data will be released on January 19, 2007. Every year, a routine data revision process called “Benchmarking for Employment and Unemployment is completed by the Agency. During the year the nonagricultural employment estimates are developed using a survey of Florida businesses. These sample-based estimates are revised annually using more information on employment counts from Unemployment Insurance tax records and more complete survey responses. Due to this benchmarking process, the release of Florida’s Employment/Unemployment data for 2007 has been revised. The new 2007 Employment/Unemployment Data release schedule will be posted to AWI website soon. Employers Find Skilled Workers Through “Hire Vets First”. Finding the right employee is more difficult today due to Florida’s low unemployment, but a solution can be found in every employer’s backyard. Employers looking for skilled, proven workers and military veterans looking for jobs can find each other through the One Stop Career Centers sponsored by the Workforce Development Board of the Treasure Coast. Veterans’ Representatives, funded by Florida’s Agency for Workforce Innovation and housed at the Career Centers, work exclusively with military veterans and certain spouses of military veterans, providing them with “priority” employment and career training services that prepare veterans for work with Treasure Coast employers. Veterans’ Representatives and the Career Center Business Services team seek out and work with Treasure Coast employers to match their workforce needs to veterans seeking employment. “Veterans bring a unique set of skills and experiences to the job. They have a proven work record and skills attractive to employers,” said Larry Sowers, Lead Veterans’ Representative. Veterans’ Representatives assist the Career Centers with employer recruiting events, are present at most large scale Treasure Coast Job Fairs and host an annual Regional Veteran’s Job Fair. Recently, the Habitat for Humanity of Martin County hired a veteran through a Career Center. They had an immediate need for a Construction Manager due to the current manager’s impending retirement. The right person for this position needed a wide range of experience in the building of houses and the ability to teach those who are participating in the Habitat program, many of whom have little or no experience with construction techniques or the hand tools used in building a home. The Veterans’ Representatives located a veteran jobseeker with the right skills and years of experience managing new home construction projects, a position the jobseeker held with a major area builder until the recent downturn in the real estate market. The veteran was referred to Habitat for Humanity who was extremely pleased with the qualifications of the Construction Manager candidate and hired him to manage a project that will construct over 58 homes in the Martin County area over the next 2 years. This position will pay $50K - $60K per year. The employer and their new Construction Manager are strong supporters of the “Hire Vets First” program and plan to use the Career Centers and Veterans’ Program services for any future workforce needs. Other interested employers should contact Larry Sowers, Lead Veterans’ Representative, at 772-462-6157. Veterans looking for a job should visit the One Stop Career Center in Fort Pierce, Okeechobee, Stuart or Vero Beach. The Veteran’s Services Program is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS). The Workforce Development Board of the Treasure Coast is a non-profit corporation responsible for the local workforce development system. The Board, consisting primarily of private-sector business leaders, funds and oversees workforce solutions for the Treasure Coast and is the local grant recipient for the Veterans’ Employment Services Program. Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy at UCF Graduates
First Class. The Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy
(FIEA) of University of Central Florida’s groundbreaking
graduate-level video game development program has graduated
its first class. Twelve students earned Master’s degrees
from FIEA, which opened its doors in 2005 as part of an effort
to meet the increasingly advanced needs of the growing video
game industry. FIEA’s current fall enrollment is 63
including 17 students scheduled to graduate this semester.
For more information, visit http://news.ucf.edu/UCFnews/index?page= The NationNAM announces new initiative. The Manufacturing Institute
of the National Association of Manufacturers has launched “Business
Champions”- an initiative to catalyze business leadership
to speak out and support policies that expand educational opportunities
aimed at building a competitive U.S. workforce. This exciting
initiative is being funded with a grant of more than half a
million dollars from Lumina Foundation for Education and builds
on previous support from The Ford Foundation and Charles Stewart
Mott Foundation. Working with the leadership of America’s
community/technical colleges and business community, we are
particularly concerned about the small and mid-sized companies
that are the backbone of our economy and that have a growing,
urgent need for skilled, high-tech employees. To read the news
release and see NAM’s roster of Business Champions go
to http://www.nam.org/s_nam/bin.asp?CID=67&DID=237967&DOC=FILE.PDF.
If you would like to learn how to become more engaged in our
workforce competitiveness initiative, contact The Manufacturing
Institute’s Phyllis Eisen at 202-637-3011 or peisen@nam.org. Grant and Competitive Award Opportunities and NoticesFor additional information go to, visit the External Grant Opportunities page.Featured Opportunity:(none) State Grants(none) Federal GrantsAdvanced Technological Education Charter School Program Geoscience Education (GeoEd) Head Start University Partnership Research Grants: English
Language Learners (ELLs) in Head Start and Early Head Start
Programs Foundation Grants2007 HP Technology For Teaching Grants Helping Hands To Neighborhoods Grant Program Scholarships/Awards2007 Better Community Awards Third Annual "Programs & Practices that Work" Award Yoshiyama Award for Exemplary Service to the Community Oxfam International Youth Award Partnerships Upcoming Meetings, Conferences and
Events
Workforce Florida Board and Related Meetings Schedule:For up-to-date WFI board meeting info please check the calendar at the WFI website. January 17, 2006 January 29-31, 2007
February 22, 2007 Other Meetings/Conferences/Events:
January 17, 2007 January 18, 2007 January 24, 2007 February 8-9, 2007 April 2nd-5th, 2007 May 30, 31 & June 1, 2007 Odds and EndsNew from MDRC: A Vision for the Future of the Workforce
Investment System. This short paper reviews the history of
the workforce investment system in the United States, describes
the large size of the low-wage labor market and the growth
in the availability of work supports for low-wage workers,
and offers recommendations for expanding the Workforce Investment
Act, initially in a demonstration context, to focus more
on job retention and advancement by engaging private employers
and to enhance the accessibility of work supports. Access
the paper at: “FREE” Federal Resources for Educational Excellence Website. One of the most popular ‘Free”online resources supported by the U.S. Department of Education has been redesigned. The website has more than 1500 teaching and learning resources available from the federal government from more than 35 federal agencies that range from an interactive program picturing phases of the moon from the National Science Foundation to video narratives by Holocaust survivors from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. It organizes these resources according to academic subjects, using an appealing display of photos and illustrations for easy identification. The new design also adds a subject map on the home page that organizes the online collection according to eight categories: language arts; math; science; U.S. history; U.S. time periods; world studies; arts and music; and health and physical education. http://free.ed.gov/index.cfm From U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- ‘Effects
of Housing Choice Vouchers on Welfare Families”. Final
analysis of a study conducted over several years to measure
the impact of Housing Choice Vouchers on the housing mobility
of low-income families, the characteristics of their neighborhoods,
the composition of their households, their employment, earnings,
participation in education and training, their receipt of
public assistance, their poverty and material hardship, and
the well-being of their children. This research evaluates
the Welfare to From: SOUTHERN COMPASS: January 9, 2007 http:// www.southern.org.
Quote for the Week:“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” Thomas A. Edison |
