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Workforce Solutions urges coordinated countywide effort, schedules May 18 job fair
Summary
At the Cleveland EDC meeting, Workforce Solutions's Tom Yanessa outlined a countywide career task force to coordinate employers, schools and service providers, announced a job fair for May 18 and described paid work-experience and on-the-job training programs to build local talent pipelines.
Tom Yanessa, a business consultant for Workforce Solutions, told the Cleveland Economic Development Corporation on May that a countywide career task force will convene chambers, school districts, employers and workforce partners to identify local hiring barriers and align resources.
"If the rural communities don't get a hold of it fast, Harris County will soak it all up," Yanessa said, urging local leaders to act quickly to capture federal workforce dollars. He described the task force as a convener for industry roundtables that surface employer needs and guide investments in career pathways, internships and training.
Yanessa said Workforce Solutions will help run job fairs and hiring events and promote no-cost services such as job postings and resume assistance. He announced a job fair at the civic center on May 18 to connect graduating seniors and other jobseekers with employers and resource partners; Cleveland ISD and Liberty ISD plan to participate.
He outlined programs intended to reduce employers' hiring risk: paid work experience that covers a participant's wages and workers' compensation for up to about 240 hours (part-time, up to 30 hours weekly), and on-the-job training that can reimburse employers for the first 400 hours of pay (up to 50%). Yanessa said registered apprenticeships are also available but are more time-consuming to set up because they include a classroom component.
Labor-market reports provided by the Houston-Galveston Area Council were cited as a planning tool to identify sector growth and skills needs. Yanessa referenced large private investments in the region as both a challenge and an opportunity to prepare local workers for incoming projects.
Board members asked about employer eligibility and service boundaries; Yanessa said businesses generally need to meet a minimal size threshold in the state's tax system (about three employees) to participate in some programs, and that the Gulf Coast Workforce Board covers 13 counties including Liberty County, although eligibility can depend on zip-code boundaries.
The presentation closed with a call to action for local leaders to spread awareness of Workforce Solutions' free services and to participate in industry roundtables to shape a unified workforce strategy.
