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Raimondo Supports Job-Training Partnerships

Governor Gina M. Raimondo today emphasized the pivotal role employers play in the state's workforce development actions by supporting Real Jobs Rhode Island grant recipients to develop strong job training plans.

"Real Jobs Rhode Island is moving at the speed of business by putting employers with open jobs at the center of the action," Governor Raimondo said. "This is a fresh idea that partners with businesses to accomplish our mission of putting people to work in well-paying jobs, while helping people build the skills they need to succeed."

Conference participants heard from guest speakers about how to sharpen job-training strategies, strengthen sector partnerships and create pipelines of workers with the right skills.

US Department of Labor Deputy Assistant Secretary Eric M. Seleznow, RI Secretary of Commerce Stefan Pryor, and DLT Director Scott Jensen also spoke. Panelists included Elisabeth Sachs, executive director of the Job Opportunities Task Force in Baltimore; Laura Spada, executive director of the Baltimore Alliance for Careers in Healthcare; Jessica David, senior vice president of strategy and community investments for the Rhode Island Foundation; and Alex Miller, vice president of strategy for LaunchCode in St. Louis, MO. Byron Auguste, managing director of Washington, DC-based Opportunities@Work, gave the keynote address.

"We gathered some of our nation's brightest thinkers and practitioners in workforce development to guide the Real Jobs Rhode Island grantees toward producing the best ideas to connect Rhode Island workers to jobs faster," said Raimondo. "I hear weekly from employers who are looking for talented staff and who say that a skilled workforce is their number one priority."

Recently, Raimondo, Pryor, and Jensen announced that 21 sector coalitions had received Real Jobs Rhode Island planning grants, totaling $479,000, to provide funding to support the creation of strategic industry partnerships. Over the past six weeks, these groups have been identifying the training, education, and human resource solutions needed to address their business needs and developing the action plans to implement their solutions. These industry partnerships - and additional workforce sector groups interested in pursuing Raimondo's demand-driven approach to job training - have until October 23rd to apply for Real Jobs Rhode Island implementation grants. These grants, of up to $150,000, will help the partnerships implement their action plans and begin training people for jobs that actually exist now.

For more information on Real Jobs RI, visit http://www.dlt.ri.gov/realjobs/.

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