Rep. Kilmer Joins WorkForce Central to Talk About Helping Jobseekers and Local Employers

Okay. Hey everybody. Derek Kilmer here I am joined by the fantastic team from Workforce Central uh in Pierce County. It's the organization that's committed to coordinating and administering an advancing the work of workforce of our workforce development system in in Pierce County. uh our new CEO Katie Condit is here um Katy I may turn it over to you to just talk a bit about what workforce Central does uh and how your organization is adapted to this uh this challenging pandemic. We're thrilled to be joining you here. Workforce Central is all about connecting the workforce the opportunity and business and employers to the workforce. so we play a central role in streamlining systems for employers and potential employees offering a full suite of services to workforce around training recruitment development um, as well as a full suite of services to our local businesses and employers around hiring recruitment screening and placement Um we really championed a comprehensive approach to workforce development as. Critical component to our strong economy here in Pierce County uh you know has changed the game a bit, but it's certainly hasn't changed the need for the attention on our workforce and on our business and employer sector. so while we have pivoted to Virtual Services uh meeting potential workforce and businesses where they're at and the need has only increased and so we've adjusted to. Virtual job fairs our last one a couple of weeks ago so over 300 young people in attendance really hungry for meaningful work experience opportunities. uh we've pivoted to continuing to help businesses through screening and hiring and um you know looking differently at how to do that in the world, which is which is virtual and makes connections harder and more difficult uh but but we are certainly here at the need is only significantly increased since. Since co began um but we're thrilled to be serving our community at the nexus of workforce meets employment. Well, we're grateful for the work you do Katy and and uh congratulations on being the new CEO. Um I also wanna recognize and uh and thank Lakisha Garu uh who does a lot of the work focused on helping job seekers get attached to employment? um obviously as a consequence of this pandemic we have seen. Many people who've unfortunately lost their jobs as a consequence of all of this Leticia for folks who may be watching who are in that situation. Can you speak a bit about the services that work for central provides and how folks might be able to get attached to those resources? Absolutely so there are robust resources to help job seekers connect to employment opportunities and while your particular industry may have been impacted, there are training opportunities that we're also able to provide resources to and allow you to access industry. Understand how to help you navigate career choices and career change. These resources are available to you in every county here in our state and workforce.com is the first location to start now while we are not open to the public right now due to the risk of our staff and your and your safety as well as job seekers in the public, we do have a virtual platform by which we have put a lot of thought and energy behind to ensure that we're able to reach the needs. Now we just need to make sure. Our job in our state and our local areas understand how to connect to those opportunities. Those resources are there for you and again WorkSource.com is gonna be the first phase that you can start. There's an easy website to navigate and you'll have the ability to connect to your local region, which will also then provide connectivity to individuals who can talk to you about job placement opportunities um the ability to connect to resources for training and education and also just your basic skills needs to help you with resume writing interviewing skills. A lot of interviews are taking place right now virtually. Is a new platform that sometimes we don't necessarily have the tool in our tool belt from experience to navigate. We have such a matter, experts on staff that are able to help you with that. We have also we have great resources that are classes that you can take virtually to help you understand how to use your social media as a platform to navigate your marketability and the job and the in the job market. Um there's quite a bit of resources. I encourage everybody to really connect to them and explore robustly. Thank you that. So thank you, Aisha and we're also joined by someone who I've known for a really long time uh back to my days working in economic development in Pierce County, LA Chambers, Grady, You know one of the important things that work for central does is not only tries to deal with unemployment through supporting the job seeker, but also providing help to employers who might have uh openings um that they wanna feel so Ellie say a word or two about what works for. In that respect and for those employers who may be watching and may have opportunities what should they know? well? Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk about this. We have a great suite of services for employers. uh we can help with hiring uh connect them to job fairs. uh also social media some some of the um employers are going to social media to advertise their positions so we can list jobs for employers. We can help them find great talent uh we can help them with uh setting up interviews with those clients and so uh the whole range of services to help with hiring and. Great talent to fit the positions that they have open and so again they can either connect to the workforce uh or uh they there's AI think there's also a phone number on the website so they can contact them that way. So we'd be glad to help those employers in the county and find great talent That's terrific well and you know, II thought this before the pandemic and I certainly think it now, you know the efforts that we make around workforce development are so closely. To the uh our success around economic development as well, um I will mention we heard the chair. The feds say one of the biggest risks that we face out of this pandemic is the erosion of skills and the fact that some people who've lost their jobs may not see those jobs come back and may need to pursue additional uh training opportunities. Um I've worked with my colleagues to introduce a bill that's bipartisan in both the house and in the Senate. it's a bill called the skills. Act that would provide help to people who've lost their jobs so that they can enroll in apprenticeships or in college classes or in retraining programs so that they can learn new skills and learn new jobs and earn a good living. um it would be flexible and cover the cost of training programs um Uh would be available to any worker who's lost their job as a consequence of the pandemic um and hopefully would make a real difference uh in terms of helping people open the door to new economic opportunity and I mentioned it's uh uh. Bipartisan about the house and the Senate and it's my hope that we'll see Congress come together to pass that kind of common-sense bipartisan legislation because while so much of the focus has been on just trying to stop the bleeding at some point, we also have to figure out how we're gonna get this economy moving forward again and I'm uh I'm confident that's something that work for central is really uh oriented towards as well. So I wanna thank you all for uh the time you've spent with me not just uh. This which we've recorded but also beforehand talking through some of those ideas. I really appreciate your leadership and for folks if you have any questions about the bill I mentioned or about workforce Central don't hesitate to reach out to my office. Uh thanks again everybody for tuning in and uh keep wearing a mask, washing your hands and uh and stay safe. Thanks everybody.