The St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE) American Job Center received nearly $1 million in grant funds – $977,793 – through the U.S. Department of Labor to help individuals pursue the education and training necessary to advance their careers or obtain employment.
With the money, SLATE will enroll and train 250 participants – unemployed, underemployed, and incumbent workers – with special emphasis on low-income/disadvantaged populations. They will be provided with financial assistance to earn a degree or credential necessary to obtain middle- to high-skilled jobs. Participants must be 16 years or older and not currently in school.
SLATE will engage participants in American Job Centers either through traditional adult and dislocated worker programs or as referrals from partner education and training providers and employers. On-the-job training will be the essential element to the service strategy, based on options that are the best fit for each participant.
Targeted occupations include Financial Analyst, Personal Financial Advisor, Industrial Machinery Mechanic, Computer Controller, Pharmacy Technician, Registered Nurse, Medical Assistant, Medical/Clinical Technologist, Medical Records Coding, Computer Support Desk, Computer Systems Analyst, Software Developer, Computer Programmer, and Cyber Security.
To date, SLATE received commitments from employers and employer associations including the St. Louis Regional Chamber, Missouri Enterprise, Hunter Engineering, BioGenerator, BacterioScan, and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, as well as two training providers, St. Louis Community College and Ranken Technical College.
In this effort, SLATE was part of a group, led by Employ Milwaukee and consisting of Kansas City, Chicago, Minneapolis, Gary (Indiana), Detroit, and Milwaukee, that applied under the America’s Promise grant opportunity. The grant has been titled the Compete Midwest America’s Promise Alliance (CMAPA); the total amount awarded across all participating cities was $6 million.
CMAPA will also coordinate key regional stakeholders to design new training and employment schemes, enhance participation of local businesses in hiring and retaining talent, and integrate efforts to fully leverage the cost of case management and supporting services among CMAPA’s partners.
“We have developed a program that will strengthen and help grow economies and workforce not only in St. Louis but the Midwest region at large,” said Michael K. Holmes, SLATE’s executive director. “Strategic and planning efforts are better done in collaboration – regional partnerships work across the state lines to efficiently use resources and learn best practices from each other.”
This is the third successful regional coalition SLATE has been a part of with Employ Milwaukee; the first two were American Apprenticeship and TechHire.
Nationwide, $100 million was made available through the Labor Department to expand education and training programs and pilot/scale up innovative tuition-free partnerships between employers, economic development, workforce boards, community/technical colleges, and community-based organizations.
The CMAPA grant award was one of 23 awarded and the highest allowed under this opportunity. More than 1,430 individuals will be trained through this grant over the four-year period.
For more information, visit www.stlworks.com. The main phone number at SLATE is 314-589-8000.
