Welcome to the Workforce Roundup! Below are workforce news, resources and updates from the last week.
A few quick highlights for this week:
1) Thanks Speaker DeLeo, Representative Tom Conroy, and 39 co-sponsors for supporting job training through including funding for the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund in the House Economic Development bill!
2) Join SkillWorks, the Workforce Solutions Group, and our partners for our 2014 Gubernatorial Forum: Building Massachusetts’ Skills to Compete! RSVP today to join us at Roxbury Community College on July 16 to hear what the Massachusetts Gubernatorial candidates have to say about jobs and workforce development!
3) New book launched on June 12, 2014! Connecting People to Work: Workforce Intermediaries and Sector Strategies, edited by Maureen Conway and Robert P. Giloth, focuses on the expanding role of sector strategies in crafting workforce programs that address the needs of low-income workers. The book also features a chapter on SkillWorks, and the trials and tribulations of our funder collaborative, by our very own Loh-Sze Leung!
4) With support from SkillWorks, MassBudget has created a new resource – the online Jobs & Workforce Budget tool, which provides easily accessible funding information and clear descriptions of the workforce development programs funded by our state budget. Check it out today!
There’s lots more below! Please add anything we missed by submitting a comment.
Workforce in the News
- Competency-Based Education: Adding Value in the Liberal Arts (Antoinette Flores, Center for American Progress, June 12, 2014).
- Obama in Worcester to uphold school as model (Matt Viser, The Boston Globe, June 11, 2014).
- Manufacturing and the Skills Crisis (Jerry Jasinowski, HuffPost Business, June 10, 2014).
- The Real Reason That Young People Can’t Find Jobs (Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, June 10, 2014).
- Amid Long-Term Unemployment ‘Crisis,’ MIT Project Lifts Job Seekers (Benjamin Swasey, WBUR, June 9, 2014).
- Expanding apprenticeships is worth the investment (Zach McDade, MetroTrends Blog at the Urban Institute, June 9, 2014).
- Praise for Bipartisan, Bicameral Bill to Improve America’s Workforce Development System (Press Release, Education & the Workforce Committee, June 5, 2014).
Research and Reports
- Connecting People to Work: Workforce Intermediaries and Sector Strategies (Maureen Conway and Robert P. Giloth, June 12, 2014).
- Investing in People: Workforce Training in the Massachusetts State Budget (MassBudget, June 11, 2014).
- Manufacturers Bullish on Expected Sales and Capital Spending (National Association of Manufacturers, June 9, 2014).
- How Many More Skilled Workers Do We Need?: Using Supply and Demand Reports for State Workforce Planning (Bryan Wilson, National Skills Coalition, June 2014).
- May Jobs Report (Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 6, 2014).
Tools and Resources
Funding Opportunities
- Workforce Training Fund to award money to employers to help them train employees, enhance skills, and learn new skills. Click here to learn more!
- Common Impact is now accepting applications for capacity building projects which will begin in early 2014. Common Impact hopes to make a decision within the next few weeks and applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.
- Click here to learn more about how to apply, and to access the application.
- Department of Labor (DOL) has announced $53 million in funding available through the Workforce Innovation Fund (WIF). Applications are due by June 18, 2014, and grants will be awarded in September 2014. More information can be found on the National Skills Coalition website.
- Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation is now accepting grant proposals for their Small Business Assistance Grant Program. Proposals due no later than 5pm, on Friday, June 27, 2014.
- The Economist and the Lumina Foundation has announced they will be awarding $10,000 to at least one submission to their Challenge: Bridge the Gap Between the Workforce and Higher Education. Submissions due by July 25, 2014.
Events