ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250006
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
It's only a foothill, the eroded remains of huge federal jobs-training programs that rose like a mountain during the 1960s and then exploded like Mount St. Helen's.
And it continues to be targeted by deficit-reducers. Funding for one of its training programs for youth was cut in half this year.
Yet the Private Industry Council is still around, a $3.2-million effort that steered about 1,100 Western Virginians toward employment during the past fiscal year.
"Our finished product becomes tax-paying citizens. We don't just take, we give back. But nobody mentions that," said Ronnie Martin.
Martin is director of the council's jobs program and a believer in spending public money to train disadvantaged citizens or retrain displaced workers.
"Anytime you see success stories it makes it all worthwhile. And we see a lot of them," he said.
Martin says nearly nine of 10 participants in his program find work or get meaningful vocational training. If they don't get a job, or drop out of the program, he said, it's likely to be their own fault.
This federally funded effort to find jobs for the unemployed and unemployable retains its traditional goals, although its methods have changed over the years.
Training is more tailored to the individual and designed with local job markets in mind. It's also more interactive with private industry.
Shifting control from federal to local levels is the lesson jobs-training programs have learned over the past 30 years, Martin said.
Funds still come from the federal Department of Labor. But the Private Industry Council is directed by local representatives of government, business, economic development and education.
Martin said the program is also more accessible at community "work force development centers" where clients are tested and directed toward the appropriate kind of employment training. New River Valley work force training centers are located in Christiansburg, Floyd, Pulaski and Pearisburg.
The council's job-training clients are "a hard group," Martin said. From teen-agers to the elderly, they're economically disadvantaged and they tend to be uneducated and unskilled.
Personal barriers such as lack of transportation or child-care responsibilities also complicate employment opportunities.
At a basic level, some of the program's clients have little idea about what it takes to get and hold a regular job.
Martin said his program seeks to remove barriers in a variety of ways, from paying stipends for baby sitters to sending trainees to vocational schools or community colleges.
The program also tries to place its trainees with local businesses, with the Private Industry Council paying up to half of their salary during a training period of eight to 12 weeks. Internships are also a means of getting work experience for clients.
The council also runs a more traditional summer jobs training program for youth.
A newer initiative involves two other groups: established workers that lost jobs because of plant closings, and displaced homemakers who are left without adequate incomes when spouses die or leave.
Martin said these clients are easier to retrain for new jobs because of their maturity, experience and motivation. Last year his program spent more than $1 million on them and still there is a waiting list to participate.
Funding cutbacks have reduced his "bare-bones" staff to about 25 trainers and case managers to cover a 13-county area from the New River Valley to Bristol. Program workers follow clients through the training process and perform follow-up evaluations for those placed in jobs. It's rare for a client to be allowed to re-enter the program after they have been trained and placed in a job, Martin said. "We don't want to recycle people."
Deeper budget cuts may be ahead, but the Private Industry Council is still recruiting clients to participate in its programs. Most trainees respond to advertisements or come to the program by referral from other agencies.
For more information about the Private Industry Council's job training programs, call one of the local work-force development centers - Christiansburg, 381-0838; Floyd, 745-5004; Pulaski, 980-7725; or Pearisburg, 921-1980.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB