Partnerships will create jobs in Rhode Island

Posted on October 2, 2015

Employers are busy supporting grant recipients and jobs in Rhode Island at a conference.

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.

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.

“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.”