menu
The U.S. Department of Labor awarded Partner4Work (P4W), other partner cities of Midwest Urban Strategies (MUS), and other western PA workforce boards nearly $8 million in Trade and Economic Transition Dislocated Worker grant funding to help mature dislocated workers reconnect with employment in growth occupations and industries.
“With a predicted shortfall of nearly 80,000 workers in the Pittsburgh region alone, finding opportunities to engage mature workers who have struggled to reconnect to the workforce is critical to the continued vitality of this region,” said Earl Buford, Partner4Work CEO.
“Addressing the needs of our ageing workforce is a challenge for all of our members,” said Midwest Urban Strategies Director Tracey Carey. “While we’re especially excited for our partners involved in the grant we’re also eager for others to take this opportunity this to learn from the best practices and experiences that will come.”
The $7.85 million grant award will be used to coordinate and implement a regional strategy to recruit mature workers that have experienced a dislocation in sectors negatively impacted by technology and automation. Specifically, partners will use pre-apprentice and registered apprenticeship, customized, just-in-time training to develop best practice strategies.
The program will focus on efforts to engage and retrain mature workers with new skill sets and gain reemployment in sectors including Healthcare, Transportation and Logistics, Information Technology, Financial Services and Advanced Manufacturing.
As fiscal agent of these funds, P4W will retain nearly $2.5 million in programmatic and administrative funds to deploy in the Pittsburgh region. Other partnering workforce boards and organizations include MUS partners — Workforce Development Board of Central Ohio, Cleveland Cuyahoga County Workforce Development Board, Employ Indy (Indianapolis), Center for Workforce Innovation (Gary/Valparaiso, Indiana), Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas; Western Pennsylvania workforce boards — Southwest Corner, Westmoreland Fayette, and Tri-County; the Council for Adult Experiential Learning (CAEL).
To learn more about Partner4Work, please click here.
