By Nancy Peckenham
The city council took a step toward creating a jobs training program on Monday when it voted to approve a study by the statewide Workforce Development Institute.
The council approved spending $29,500 for a study that will assess the jobs need for residents of the city of Newburgh and propose a training program by early next year.
City councilwoman Marge Bell spoke in favor of working with the institute after she and members of the city’s workforce development committee visited their offices in Albany earlier this year. Stephen Traver, Director of Vocational Services for the Institute, told the council last week that in 2010, 64 percent of the people they placed in jobs made it at least 90 days, a rate three times greater than that achieved by other programs he was aware of.
At Monday’s council meeting, several residents questioned whether this program would duplicate training services already available in the city, like that of Orange Works.
Councilwoman Bell noted that the city has so many unemployed and untrained workers in the city of Newburgh that the available services are not getting people to work. “We’ve got to get people to work,” Bell said.
Councilwoman Bell said that with a renewed committed to jobs from the federal government, Newburgh residents need to be trained and ready when new jobs open up. The $29,500 cost will be covered by funds from the Community Block Development Grant. Bell added that she expects grants will be found to cover the next phase of the program.
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