Workforce Central Florida expands list of jobs eligible for federal money

By Jim Stratton, Orlando Sentinel

7:34 p.m. EST, May 15, 2012

With Central Florida's unemployment rate at 8.6 percent, the region's jobs board has eased restrictions on how almost $7 million in federal training money can be spent, opening up a long list of occupations to laid-off workers.

Beginning in July, Workforce Central Florida clients will be able to use federal training money to learn jobs that, for the past few years, have been off limits.

Agency board members expanded the list of eligible occupations for adults seeking training under the federal Workforce Investment Act. They also lifted restrictions on what jobs teenagers can get under the agency's summer-jobs program.

The training program's budget is about $3.1 million, and the summer-jobs' program is $3.8 million.

Workforce Chairman Kevin Shaughnessy said new board members ? appointed last fall after the previous board was forced out ? wanted to place a greater emphasis on "getting people back to work now."

"The goal is immediate job placement," said Shaughnessy, a local attorney with ties to Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs. "We can focus on long-term training later."

When distributing job-training and summer jobs money, the previous board had concentrated on high-paying, high-demand jobs identified by the state. Shaughnessy said those tended to cluster in the so-called STEM industries ? science, technology, engineering and math.

But while those are high-quality jobs, Workforce officials have found there aren't enough to go around.

Placing special emphasis on those positions may have made sense, Shaughnessy said, when unemployment was 4 percent or 5 percent, but in today's labor market, officials can't be so picky.

The previous board "never really adapted when we were hit by the recession and high employment," Shaughnessy said. "It's more important to get people back to work now than focus on specific occupations."

Some of the jobs for which training money will be available include food-service managers, bus and truck mechanics, and correctional officers.

Participants in the training program take aptitude tests and receive vouchers to pay for training from a group of approved training providers. Each year, the state produces a list of approved occupations based on forecasts of Florida's labor market.

Regional Workforce boards ? there are 24 across the state ? are allowed to add to that list or trim it, according to Kevin Neal, interim director of Workforce Central Florida.

The previous board approved the distribution of training money for just 20 occupations. Under the summer youth program, it required teens to be applying for jobs in one of 42 targeted industries.

The new board has made 121 jobs eligible for training money and lifted all restrictions on the summer-jobs program for young workers.

The former board's goal may have been worthwhile, but it had unintended consequences, according to a recent agency memo.

"Although on the surface this would seem to allow our youth opportunities in growing careers, many of the job options do not match the skills of the age group," the memo said.

"For example, the role of 'head chef' and 'police officer' are on the approved list. Youth age 16-21 cannot be trained on the job for these roles, and most will not have the training required for the job when entering the program."

The summer-jobs program will now pay for positions in every industry, Neal said, because, for teens and young adults just entering the work force, virtually all job experience is valuable.

Neal said his time working in a fast-food restaurant as a teen helped him develop a work ethic and taught him what employers expect. It taught him something else, too.

"It made me realize I didn't want to do that for a living," he said. "So I went on and got my law degree."

jstratton@tribune.com or 407-420-5379

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