Looking for a new career? There's help out there right now, due to City's stimulus spending
In the coming days, the Sacramento City Council is scheduled to approve scores of contracts with 30 organizations that will receive $10 million in federal CARES Act money for retraining programs. The goal: teaching more than 11,000 people new workplace skills.
The programs will be launching quickly as federal CARES Act money must be spent by the end of December.
Engagesac.org will be updated regularly as details are released on how you can apply to participate.
Get paid while earning data or IT certification
The Greater Sacramento Economic Council and the Greater Sacramento Urban League started recruiting Monday for a program that will train 40 Sacramento adults for jobs in data management or IT while paying them a $600 a week stipend. Participants will also receive a free laptop and $150 to cover access to the internet.
The organizations teamed up with digital up-skilling industry leaders General Assembly and Merit America to design the curriculum, candidate screening process and other features.
A key component is that each of the participants in the nine-week program will receive dedicated career coaching support until placed in a job.
“We’re going to make sure every person who graduates has a good job,” said GSEC President and CEO Barry Broome. The earning potential with this certification is $45 ,000 to $50,000 a year.”
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg called the program “the definition of inclusive economic development. “
“The digital economy in Sacramento is growing. and we need to connect people in our neighborhoods, especially our disadvantaged neighborhoods, with these jobs,” he said.
The organizations are still negotiating the details of their $788,000 contract with the City of Sacramento, but on Monday they went ahead and issued a call for potential applicants, with the goal of completing recruitment by Friday and finishing admissions screening by early October. The program will begin in October and end in December, when all of the CARES Act funds must be spent. The focus is on recruiting applicants from disadvantaged neighborhoods who have been economically affected by Covid-19.
Applicants need only have a high school diploma or GED, plus an interest in tech/It careers and computer literacy. GSEC is looking to attract 400 applicants. Those who are not chosen for the Digital Upskill Sacramento Pilot Program will still be eligible for other workforce training programs that are being run by the Urban League, said Cassandra Jennings, the organizations’s president and CEO.
People who want to sign up will need to complete an interest survey at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNYgzv5P91BDb_2KQ7g6ZXw-rTOQtFP8FJST5bNKdjBQQdgg/viewform
