Grants help build partnerships for ‘real jobs’

John Howell
Posted 8/5/15

The two scenes could not have been more juxtaposed.

At 1:25 p.m. on Friday, Gov. Gina Raimondo was outside Iggy’s in Oakland Beach talking with patrons lined up to place orders for doughboys and …

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Grants help build partnerships for ‘real jobs’

Posted

The two scenes could not have been more juxtaposed.

At 1:25 p.m. on Friday, Gov. Gina Raimondo was outside Iggy’s in Oakland Beach talking with patrons lined up to place orders for doughboys and clamcakes. She bent down to be at eye level with infants in strollers, and then in the next moment talked with owner David Gravino, who had been alerted she was outside the popular business with Mayor Scott Avedisian.

At 2:05 p.m., she was in the cavernous Claflin Medical Equipment warehouse on Jefferson Boulevard. Overhead fans kept the air circulating in the dimly lit space. More than 100 people, dressed in business attire, stood in a semicircle before a podium, row of chairs and U.S. and state flags.

Raimondo switched gears from talking about the pleasures of summers in Rhode Island to the realities of filling jobs with qualified, trained employees.

She said she frequently hears the same story from businesses: that they can’t fill jobs because they can’t find qualified employees. And she said when she interviewed Scott Jensen for the position of director of the Department of Labor and Training he told her of a demand-driven program to fill jobs he started as deputy secretary of labor in Maryland. She liked what she heard, and she wanted the same thing in Rhode Island – only instead of taking 18 months to implement it, she wanted it up and running in six months.

“And he did it,” she announced emphatically.

Many of those in the Claflin warehouse knew exactly what she was talking about. Their companies, educational institutions, medical institutions and professional associations are the first to receive 21 grants up to $25,000 each for a total of $479,000.

There promises to be many more recipients. The first-year state funding for the Real Jobs Rhode Island program, $1.3 million, flows from the Governor’s Workforce Board through its administration of the state Job Development Fund. Real Jobs RI has caught the attention of the feds, and the state has received an additional $5.2 million in federal funding.

At the heart of Real Jobs RI are partnerships within industry sectors to connect people to the job openings of today and the near future. The 21 grant recipients represent sectors including construction, defense, design, finance, health car, agriculture and aquaculture, manufacturing, hospitality information technology, marine trades and biotechnology.

“We’re not going to kick-start this economy without everyone involved,” Jensen said.

Jensen sees his program as responding to industry workforce needs and getting people jobs.

That’s what Normand Chevrette, president of Claflin, envisions, too. Chevrette served as the moderator and host for Friday’s announcement. But he also is intimately involved in the Claflin partnership with the Community College of Rhode Island and the hospitals that will participate in the program.

Pointing to a mobile medical stand manufactured by Claflin, which is wired for computers and diagnostic equipment, Chevrette observed that 30 years ago the cutting edge of technology was a fax machine that enabled medical institutions to transmit a patient’s medical report to their physicians. Today, equipment monitoring a patient is instantly recorded and fed into the patient’s record. What’s more, it’s read by computers and available to physicians who detect changes and can respond appropriately. Having people who understand the technology and the needs of the hospitals is critical to the system.

Working with Peter Woodberry, CCRI’s dean of business, science and technology, through the $25,000 grant, young people currently enrolled in the Year Up program at CCRI will be eligible for an apprentice program run in collaboration between Lifespan, South County Hospital, Claflin and CCRI.

As Chevrette described it, four interns would be identified annually and slotted to work alongside hospital technicians in areas that require specific job skills that are in demand.

“We’ll put Rhode Islanders in high tech jobs instead of going out of state to fill these positions. Let’s take care of our own,” Chevrette said.

Other partnerships, such as that in finance involving the Rhode Island Bankers Association and the URI Business Engagement Center, will convene members in the banking industry to identify how best to fill the skills gap of the current and future banking workforce. In the healthcare training sector, St. Antoine Residence is partnering with Homefront Healthcare, CareLink, URI, Stepping Up and PACE to provide appropriate skills training to place people in jobs that already exist.

Jensen envisions the program working on many fronts, identifying workforce needs and bringing together teams to address that particular industry demand.

And, as he already knows, it’s going to take a lot of work.

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