Are you getting ready to get busy?
In today’s economy we really do not know what to expect. All the negative news, lay offs, bankruptcy, and business closures are enough to drive people into deep depression. The question is, what are we doing to get ready for the turn around? Education has always done very well when times are bad and today is no different. People are looking to change careers and improve their job skills. Public and private educational institutes are about to be overwhelmed with enrollments.
The unemployment rate is growing rapidly. Local workforce agencies are seeing high numbers of people enrolling for benefits. Many of their budgets have been drastically cut over the years so available funds for training dislocated workers have been slim to none. However, everyone is expecting to see increased funds allocated to training in the near future to assist in getting people back to work.
Here are some helpful tips in creating teamwork with your local government agencies to make sure you are ready:
- Visit with your local agencies. Let them know you want to help and you are ready to assist them in putting people back to work.
- Get the carriers in your area involved. They need reassurance of job probabilities even though driver demand is not what it was a year ago.
- Develop an advisory committee or if you have one get them more involved. Make sure to include representatives from your local government.
- If government agencies allow, offer to speak at one of the orientations. Bring a local or OTR carrier representative to give more specifics about their hiring needs.
- Your placement services need to be aggressive in getting students to fill out applications. Showing off your placements to the government agencies will help you tremendously in getting additional approvals to attend your education programs.
President Obama's stimulus package includes billions for job skills training. This money will eventually make its way to educators. We are starting to hear from our BUMPERTOBUMPER® schools that they are getting students from government programs. If you aren't, ask us for help. We can point you in the right direction. Grants are available for job skills training and you need to make sure you apply. If you have not completed a grant application before, you are in for a tedious, lengthy and challenging process. Consider getting help from someone who has experience in applying for grants (like us!).
Mike Byrnes and Associates, Inc. wants to see all our customers succeed. Please do not hesitate to ask us for help with any of your ideas or projects. We are offering consulting services, distance learning assistance, grant writing, curriculum development, and of course editing and publishing personalized materials. We will always be experts in training materials for the trucking industry but we have experience in and are available to create any type of training materials in other fields.
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