Job Training

Finally, job training is in the headlines. And it is being lauded and maligned. The federal government has devoted millions to training grants and other training activities. But why invest scarce public funds in job training when there are no jobs? Let's get the facts straight. Training doesn't create jobs, but it does position individuals and communities for economic recovery, especially when a person is retrained for a new job with new skills. When training is tied to current and future employment needs, that training prepares workers with the skills that will equip them to be successful in their job search.

The grind of being an NFL nose guard is embraced by Ravens rookie Brandon Williams, a heavyweight defensive lineman accustomed to dirty work and life's hardships. Before emerging as a draft sleeper from Division II Missouri Southern, Williams spent last summer hauling and cleaning portable toilets. "Sometimes, you got a little poop on you," said Williams, the Ravens' third-round pick (94th overall). "Every time I was doing that, I said to myself, 'I gotta work harder, I'm not doing this the rest of my life.' It motivated me to get better.

The Open Society Institute of Baltimore, a foundation funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, is giving $1.5 million to four city nonprofits for job training for low-income residents. The award will be accompanied by another $1.5 million of state and federal funds. The $3 million in funding will help provide job training and placement services to 141 people with criminal convictions who otherwise would be unable to find work. The four nonprofits receiving funding are the Center for Urban Families, Civic Works, Group Ministries and the Job Opportunities Task Force.

The Maryland General Assembly on Tuesday approved a new program that would distribute $2.5 million in state grants each year to train workers for high-demand industries. The House of Delegates voted 115-23 to approve the measure, which passed the Senate unanimously last month. Gov. Martin O'Malley introduced the Maryland Employment Advancement Right Now bill, given the acronym EARN, and on Tuesday celebrated its passage.  "Though Maryland has built up one of the most highly-skilled workforces in the nation, too many of our workers lack the skills they need to compete for the jobs in highest demand," O'Malley said in a statement, adding that "The EARN initiative will help us bridge that skills gap. "  Under the program, grants would be distributed through partnerships among workforce centers, community colleges, employers and others in "targeted industries" that have a high demand for skilled workers.

Cynthia MacKinnon says she is working at her dream job, thanks to training and encouragement she received at the Caroline Center in East Baltimore. The nonprofit center, run by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, a Roman Catholic religious order, celebrates its 15th anniversary Thursday with a salute to MacKinnon and others who acquired education and job skills within its walls. "We are flourishing," said Sister Patricia McLaughlin, the center's executive director. "Meeting all these wonderful women and watching them blossom has been a blessing to us. " More than 1,500 women have completed the center's employment readiness programs since it opened its doors on Somerset Street.

Often, the best ideas for a column come from readers. One reader recently objected to a column about Republicans vs. Democrats and said the real issue for voters is, instead, the people vs. elected officials of both parties. He wanted to throw all the rascals out. I think he failed to note that all of those rascal officials were chosen by the people not so long ago. All of our local officials, all of our Carroll County delegation and our representatives to Congress are Republicans.

President Bush and Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton advocate "workfare" -- requiring welfare recipients to get education or job training if they want to receive benefits. But the story of the Human Development Institute, a small job-training company located in Baltimore, shows the difficulty of implementing such a policy under Washington's conflicting regulatory structure.HDI did what it promised -- it made workers out of welfare mothers. Seventy-five percent of the 1,500 women who passed through HDI's training sessions found jobs.

The Baltimore City Life Museums is offering a free job-training program for economically disadvantaged adults ages 55 and up who are interested in museum work.Classes meet 16 hours a week, March 14 to May 16.Qualified applicants train to fill jobs as tour guides, word processors, gift shop salespeople and other museum positions. Travel stipends and job-placement counseling are provided. Call

WASHINGTON -- The most flagrant examples of wasteful government spending are federal and state job-training programs, hampered as they are by duplication, waste and conflicting regulations.The General Accounting Office estimates that the federal government oversees some 154 separate job-training programs, administered by more than a dozen different agencies.The cost to taxpayers is close to $25 billion a year, but that's not the only chapter in this story of waste.These bureaucratic job-training programs aim at achieving only minimum skill levels and continue to pump taxpayer dollars into training directed at yesterday's jobs, particularly low-skill management jobs.

ELDERSBURG -- Judy Young is a confident, self-assured young woman of 27 with soft blond hair, friendly blue eyes and ready smile.She's also a single mother of 7-year-old twin sons, and a bank teller at Farmers and Merchants Bank in Hampstead.Two years ago, Ms. Young was a struggling young mother whose relationship had gone sour and who had no place to live. But with the help of Human Services Programs and the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), the native West Virginian is putting her life back together.

The General Assembly has approved the governor's plan to distribute $2.5 million in state grants each year to train workers for high-demand industries. The House of Delegates voted 115-23 Tuesday to approve the program, the first piece of Gov. Martin O'Malley's 2013 legislative agenda to be sent to him for his signature. The Employment Advancement Right Now program, called EARN, passed the Senate unanimously last month. "Though Maryland has built up one of the most highly skilled workforces in the nation, too many of our workers lack the skills they need to compete for the jobs in highest demand," O'Malley said in a statement.

In the hospital supply room, Ricardo Thomas checks his list against the boxes he has put on a cart to take to an operating area, making sure he has it right. "You look at the stock number and you will know — so you don't get mixed up," Thomas says, pointing to the number on the form and then the number on the carton. "Right there is the stock number. " He double-checks to make sure the form and carton list the same materials. "I sign out the orders, and I take them where they have to go," Thomas says.

Two Baltimore groups were among 10 around the Chesapeake Bay receiving $376,000 Wednesday to "green" their communities while also providing job training. Belair-Edison Neighborhoods Inc. and Southeast Community Development Corp. were awarded a combined $102,000 under the Environmental Protection Agency 's " Green Streets-Green Jobs-Green Towns " initiative. Under the program, local governments and nonprofit organizations can get grants for projects involving tree-plantings and other measures to reduce storm-water washing into local waters.  Assistance is also provided to train people in constructing such projects.

Recently, a group of elected officials who represent Baltimore's east side held a press conference calling for more inclusion of minority-owned firms and more jobs for their constituents through the $300 million in ongoing construction projects generated byEast Baltimore Development Inc.(EBDI). Surprisingly, they proposed to achieve their objective of increasing construction employment and inclusion by acting to "shut down" several construction projects. As president of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association and the owner of P&J Contracting in Baltimore, I share their desire to increase economic inclusion.

United Way of Central Maryland's Community Partnership Board of Carroll County recently awarded a community grant of $1,500 to the Westminster-based Target Community and Educational Services. Target serves Carroll County residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities achieve self-sufficiency. The grant will support Target's partnership with Junior Achievement of Central Maryland to help teach employment and independent living skills to 67 county residents. "We are grateful for this opportunity to partner with United Way ... and Junior Achievement to provide the training required to strengthen the employment skills critical to assist these individuals to live as independently as possible," said Tom Zirpoli, president and CEO of Target.

Baltimore County will begin giving priority to veterans when making local government hiring decisions, officials announced Tuesday, a policy focused particularly on those returning from conflicts overseas. County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced the decision at the National Guard's Gen. Harry C. Ruhl Armory in Towson, surrounded by uniformed soldiers and yellow ribbons. "We want to make the return home for these men and women who have fought so valiantly as easy and successful as possible," Kamenetz said.

THE CLINTON administration has put great emphasis on job training, as the cure for multiple ills.In its welfare reform, the administration hopes to train welfare recipients for jobs to lift them out of poverty. Mr. Clinton's trade policy promises training to re-educate U.S. workers displaced by low-wage foreign competition.Since the defeat of his economic stimulus package last spring, Mr. Clinton's employment policy generally has emphasized improving the supply of workers rather than increasing the demand for them.

Sixty-nine staffers at the agency that coordinates Baltimore's employment and job training efforts are now looking for work.Layoff notices were sent out this week to 49 full-time and 20 part-time workers in the Mayor's Office of Employment Development, effective Nov. 1.The layoffs of managers, custodians and clerical workers were needed because of cutbacks of $2.5 million in federal job training funds funneled to the city, Barbara A. Davis, the agency's spokeswoman,...

Regarding Leonard Pitts' column about crime in a public housing project, I offer my own reasons why state government needs to focus on improving education and job training in devastated urban areas like Liberty Square ("What if this was your neighborhood?" Nov. 20). As a student of sociology at Elon University, I have studied the impact of education on incarceration rates. Sixty-seven percent of prisoners have not earned a high school diploma. Since education has been shown to significantly reduce the probability of incarceration, even slight improvements in educational achievement would produce a drop in crime and incarceration rates.

A long-neglected mansion on the city's west side has been restored to its 19th-century grandeur so that it can provide a home and hope for homeless women. Dozens of volunteers have adopted rooms in the 8,000-square-foot Victorian, built in 1893 by the owner of a Baltimore tugboat company. They swept away years of abandonment, sanded floors, painted walls, restored stained-glass windows, repaired fireplaces and polished the fixtures. They have rebuilt the kitchen, added new bathrooms and donated linens, handmade quilts and every stick of furniture — save for the few pieces that came with the house.