Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Workforce Development topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee highlights workforce mapping, county contractor-readiness classes and Urban League pre-apprenticeship pilots
Summary
The committee reviewed planned district-level workforce mapping and business-readiness training, and members described a new Urban League pre-apprenticeship construction program that launched Jan. 6 with a Jan. 31 graduation date.
Shelby County's Racial Equity Ad Hoc Committee on Jan. 23 received updates on workforce-mapping efforts, a county business-readiness curriculum and a construction pre-apprenticeship pilot run by the Memphis Urban League.
Joselle Booker, representing the MNBC Continuum, said the workforce pillar will deliver training and data collection across the county's 13 council districts from February through October. "We will hold training sessions in each of the 13 council districts... All kickoff meetings will be held in February," Booker said. The effort will include a registration tool that captures district-level participation for later reporting.
Booker also described the Shelby County Business Readiness program launched in January to teach firms how to bid on county contracts. The program includes sessions on estimating, markup, overhead and mock bidding exercises using actual Shelby County contracts, she said.
Gail Jones Carson of the Memphis Urban League described a four-week pre-apprenticeship construction training that began Jan. 6 and pays participants a living wage. "It's a 4 week program... We have our first graduation January 31 when the students and they get paid to learn," Jones Carson said. The program is designed to prepare trainees to pass union apprenticeship entry requirements and meet job placements with contractors.
Speakers discussed barriers for opportunity youth and apprenticeships, including missing basic academic skills that prevent candidates from passing pre-apprenticeship assessments, and asked for expanded tutoring and supportive services to remove those barriers.
Committee members encouraged outreach through churches, radio and district partners to boost registration and suggested on-site certification assistance to help businesses get county and city procurement certifications. The committee set a follow-up schedule and asked for district kickoff dates and participation data ahead of their next meeting.
