Council approves $10-million plan to provide workforce training to 11,000 Sacramentans
Sacramento (Aug. 25, 2020) The Sacramento City Council Tuesday voted to distribute $10.1 million in federal CARES Act funds to 30 organizations providing workforce training for more than 11,000 young people and adults in the City of Sacramento.
The workforce training plan continues the City’s rapid deployment of its $89 million in federal stimulus funds to help small businesses, the creative economy, people experiencing homelessness, families, struggling renters and community members displaced from their jobs. After passing a broad spending framework in May, the Council moved quickly to adopt specific spending plans to meet the Dec. 30 deadline for spending the money.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg said, “I’m proud that here in the City of Sacramento we have used our CARES Act money to provide short-term relief for people hurt by the loss of housing and jobs while also making investments that will preserve and grow jobs and opportunities so we can emerge stronger than before.”
The Council is expected to vote next Tuesday to distribute nearly all of the remaining CARES Act funds— $12.5 million — to bolster the creative economy and tourism.
Assistant City Manager Michael Jasso, who heads the City’s economic development department, described the spending plan as “one of the more complex and robust programs I’ve seen a city do with CARES Act dollars.”
Recipients include several organizations affiliated with labor and the building industry that will train people to work in construction and the building trades. The PHCC Educational Association will receive $374,171 to train unemployed individuals to work in plumbing., for example.
The Greater Sacramento Urban League will use $1.76 million to provide digital skills training for 250 people and place them in jobs. La Familia will use its $400,000 to partner with Sacramento City College to recruit dislocated workers and retrain them for health care jobs, including contact tracing for Covid-19 cases.
The California Mobility Center, a partnership led by SMUD and supported by the City of Sacramento, will receive $1.47 million to develop mobility industry training programs that fit with industry needs. The Sacramento Area Employment and Training Agency (SETA) will use $1.178 million to pay the wages of workers placed with employers during an on-the-job training period..
“Many families are hurting from the massive job loss in industries that have been decimated by the pandemic,” said Councilmember Eric Guerra. “This is our opportunity to help Sacramentans retrain and develop skills for good paying jobs that are available now and through any future shut-downs.”
Kevin Brown, who runs the pre-apprenticeship readiness program for the Sacramento Building Trades Council, said his PWT United Inc. will use its funds to offer the program to 150 people. The 120-hour construction course provides a pathway to a career in union construction.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for those who are willing to roll their sleeves up and try something different, and pursue a career that has dental, medical, retirement and a sustainable wage,” he said.
