Workforce Readiness

State approves CDC culinary curriculum

2010-07-29T14:44:01Z

Southwest Vermont Career Development Center is one step closer to cooking up a two-year culinary arts and hospitality program after the state recently approved curriculum for the course. The Department of Education also approved the curriculum for two short-block introductory courses at Bennington's technical center that will run from 50 to 60 minutes a day -- one that will teach about artificial intelligence and engineering through model trains and one on water resource management.

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Openings in Vermont languish for highly skilled professionals

2010-07-26T14:09:59Z

Recruiting highly skilled professional workers is a challenge for any employer, but more so in Vermont — a rural state with a relatively small home-grown work force — than in major metro areas such as Boston or the San Francisco Bay area. Finding key employees with rare technical and professional expertise can be vital to a small, ambitious company looking to expand its niche in a highly competitive global field.

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CVCAC creates Vermont Green with $5 million to build green jobs sector

2010-07-13T19:19:53Z

Central Vermont Community Action Council is on track to distribute nearly $5 million in ARRA funds to train Vermonters in solar, wind-power, weatherization, and other green jobs by the end of 2011. The $4.86 million grant awarded to CVCAC by the US Department of Labor in January, is to coordinate green-job training across the state. CVCAC has created Vermont Green, (Vermont Growing Renewable Energy/Efficiency Employment Network), a statewide partnership to identify, create, and sponsor various training opportunities. The diverse array of partners includes private businesses, education institutions, organizations working directly with job seekers, and local government officials.

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Fletcher Allen Health Care plans nursing training

2010-06-02T17:45:03Z

Fletcher Allen Health Care and Vermont HITEC are recruiting candidates for the partnership's first training program for licensed nursing assistants.The free two-part training program will be conducted during an eight-week period. Students who successfully complete an unpaid three-week readiness program will enter a paid five-week training program that combines academic course content with clinical rotations, program officials said. The program will prepare eight participants to work directly with patients and to apply for LNA licensure with the Vermont State Board of Nursing.

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Career center invited to conference

2010-04-07T18:19:13Z

A new Windham Regional Career Center program is being recognized as one way to help transform high school education across New England. The career center, and Milton High School, have been chosen to represent Vermont at a regional conference this week. Representatives from Windham Regional Career Center will be at the New England Secondary School Consortium on April 9 in Nashua, N.H., to talk about the school’s collegiate high school program that allows high school students to take college courses and receive college credits which can be transferred upon graduating high school.

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Sen. Leahy announces $3.4M earmarks for UVM research

2010-02-04T21:31:49Z

Research at the University of Vermont received a substantial boost in the current federal budget, with $3.4 million for eight projects that include magnetic resonance imaging and advanced computing. The appropriations, signed into law for fiscal 2010 by President Obama, were announced by the office of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D.-Vt., who shepherded these earmarks through the congressional funding process.

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Crews prepare firewood for giveaway

2010-02-02T16:23:51Z

Dozens of people, including students from the Southwest Vermont Career Development Center, a work crew from the Vermont Department of Corrections and state legislators, gathered at the Vermont Agency of Transportation's Bennington garage on Monday to help prepare cords of wood for distribution through the Wood Warms program.

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Green jobs training awarded $5 million

2010-01-07T14:29:01Z

A $4.8 million economic stimulus grant awarded Wednesday to the Central Vermont Community Action Council will train about 2,400 Vermonters under a green jobs program backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. The Vermont grant -- one of 25 announced by the U.S. Department of Labor -- was among the largest awarded under the $100 million Energy Training Partnership program.

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Working to get ahead: Free career program helps unemployed in Bennington

2009-09-01T16:47:32Z

The Bennington Banner reports that this fall, a new, free program will be offered in Bennington and other parts of the state "to anyone unemployed or underemployed and looking to further their career skills." Sponsored by the Community College of Vermont and the Vermont Department of Labor, those who complete the program will receieve a "Career Readiness Certificate." Indeed, the program presents "an opportunity [for individuals] to measure and improve their job skills" and will be made up of six modules: "applied mathematics; reading for information; locating information; teamwork and interpersonal skills; work ethic, learning and life skills; and basic computer skills."

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Vermont's unemployment fund being stretched thin by layoffs

2009-01-05T16:24:44Z

Vermont Public Radio reports that "as more people lose their jobs in Vermont, the fund that pays for unemployment benefits is getting stretched thin." According to recent predictions by Vermont's state economist, "Vermont's unemployment rate will rise to almost 8 percent by mid-2010," and "that means more people will collect unemployment benefits." Currently, the Vermont fund "is paying out about $35 million more a year than it takes in. If the fund runs out of money, states can borrow from the federal government." Chris Barbieri of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce said he "will be following the issue in the Legislature." Barbieri condcluded, "It's going to be a juggling act to be sure that we are paying benefits that are needed to be paid to the unemployed and at the same we're keeping in mind the burdens currently on the employer community, which include also the minimum wage increase which occurred yesterday."

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