|
|||||||||||||||
|
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009The Atlantic Cape May Workforce Investment Board (WIB) and its local partners – Atlantic and Cape May County Governments, union and veterans organizations, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (Stockton), Atlantic Cape Community College (ACCC), and the two vocational high schools, Atlantic County Institute of Technology (ACIT) and the Cape May County Technical School District (CMCTSD) have worked as a team in the planning, coordination and implementation of workforce training programs for the residents of Atlantic and Cape May counties. For the past decade, the team has focused on the three major career clusters that drive our local economy, which has enabled the system to produce an educated and qualified workforce in our leading industries of Hospitality/Tourism, Healthcare and Retail. The partners have had a rich history of addressing the labor shortages in our demand occupations through the development of quality programs, hence making the workforce planning for the past ten years a continuation of a well developed strategy. The unique location of Atlantic and Cape May counties on the southern tip of New Jersey and fronting the Atlantic Ocean has naturally lended itself to the career cluster of hospitality and tourism. However, over the past ten years, the area has also branched out to include the industries of Healthcare, Retail and most recently Technology. However, in late 2007, amidst declining revenues in the hospitality and tourism and retail industries and subsequent workforce reductions, the landscape of the local labor market changed dramatically. For almost three decades, the hospitality and tourism industry (gaming) had been an economic engine for the region, but with labor trends warning of an impending crisis, the WIB began meeting with its private and public sector partners to discuss new opportunities for workforce and economic development in the bi-county region. More specifically how to provide continuous support of and advance existing industry such as gaming, healthcare, hospitality and tourism and retail while attracting new industry and subsequent sub-industries to the area. The status of and precondition of this region to depend solely on one industry for job creation and the necessity to assist historically high numbers of unemployed and underemployed individuals retrain to enter the workforce or advance in their existing career to stave off a layoff became the springboard for planning of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) programs. The President’s ARRA Plan should serve as the context, rationale and driving force for the WIB’s future planning initiatives - to strengthen the partnership between the education institutions and the One Stop System to help Atlantic and Cape May county residents return to work. The Workforce Investment Act asks that WIB’s and their Boards to initiate large scale changes in their communities and the One Stop System is the first step. Through this targeted effort, the One Stop Career Centers will support all New Jersey residents in finding jobs, strengthening job-search skills, entering into in - demand post secondary education or job training, improving literacy skills, utilizing labor market information to make career choices and possibly starting a new business. Click here to read the entire area plan. Attachments Attachment A: ARRA Adult/Dislocated Worker Job Training Program Table Attachment B: ARRA Budget Planning Attachment C: The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey Proposed Job Training Programs
Attachment D: Atlantic Cape Community College Proposed Job Training Programs Attachment E: Atlantic County Institute of Technology Proposed Job Training Programs Attachment F: Cape May County Technical School District Proposed Job training Programs Attachment G: Youth Summer Work Study Program |