Workforce Training and Technical Assistance

About this grant

To assist rural sector initiatives in five mid-South states, the Workforce Training and Technical Assistance project supplies sites with ongoing regional labor market research and analysis, individualized technical assistance, assistance in training design, along with policy and resource development assistance. Since 1999, the National Economic Development and Law Center has helped start up or stabilize 11 sectoral employment programs in the region.Multiyear funding will enable the project to expand the number and success of organizations carrying out sectoral employment efforts in the five states; strengthen the resource development and organizational technical assistance being provided to three sector initiatives in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi; increase one-on-one organizational assistance to start up and sustain sector work; and build a more responsive climate to the financing and support of the efforts.During the past year, the center worked with a nonprofit wood processing industry trade association based in Little Rock, Arkansas to develop and implement a four-year apprenticeship program; partnered with the Work Initiative Network to bring skills training in healthcare and construction to residents of poor, isolated communities in Covington, Louisiana; and assisted the Tri-County Workforce Alliance in Clarksdale, Mississippi to launch a full-scale sector program in construction aimed at women.