Yesterday, the DSP Workforce Development Leadership Council met with Bob Bowman, Executive Director of the New Jersey Community College Consortium for Workforce & Economic Development. Mr. Bowman gave the Council a brief overview of the available trainings included in the Basic Skills Workforce Training Program, such as basic math, reading, ESL, and computers, and urged agencies to take advantage of these trainings while they are still available.
ABCD would like to encourage all interested agencies to contact the Training Program and/or log on to the link below and sign up staff members for trainings:
*The Training Program is free- all employees attending must be "on the clock," or receiving their regular hourly wage while they are at training.
*Training topics include ESL, computer applications (Windows, MS Office), verbal and written communications, and mathematics and measurements.
*Trainings are held at various community college sites, with over 63 sites available statewide for easy accessibility.
*Trainings can also be customized for your agency’s daily operations and brought to your agency’s site. (Please note that there must be a minimum of 10 people participating at all times. *If the number of participants falls below 10, agencies are required to pay a proportion of the training fee for the missing participant.)
*Signing staff up is easy: call (609) 393-9009, or log onto http://www.njbia.org/resources/worktrain.asp for more information and directions to signing up online.
*Agencies are not required to provide a minimum number of employees.
*Agencies do not have to disclose financial information.
*Agencies are not required to fill out any paperwork.
Classes are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis and they are filling up quickly! The Training Program’s grant will end in June of 2008, however we are told that classes will definitely run out before this time, so don’t wait! We ask that you please contact us if/when you sign up staff for trainings, or if you have any questions.
Thanks and good luck to all!
ABCD Participated in the 2008 National Symposium on Strengthening the HCBS Direct Service Workforce
The DSW Resource Center, with the support of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor, hosted a National Symposium on Strengthening the HCBS Direct Service Workforce on May 8-9, 2008 in Baltimore, MD. This event provided a forum for showcasing best practices in home- and community-based direct service workforce development, highlight Federal and state workforce intiaitives, and dissemination of research findings. A primary theme of the event was the importance of addressing workforce issues across age and disability consumer populations.
