Archives for Company News

The 2021 Meeting of the Minds in Monterey Conference, September 7-9, sponsored by the California Workforce Association (CWA), will bring together decision-makers, leaders, and other industry professionals and stakeholders, focusing on Rising to the Challenge: From Rescue to Recovery. On September 8, at 10:30am PST, Joseph L. Seymour, Managing Director, Operational Excellence—and the 2015 recipient of NAWDP’s coveted Professional Development Award—will facilitate an engaging Round II Workshop on Trauma-Informed Care for Workforce Development Professionals. Mr. Seymour—who has also presented a diverse array of workshops and webinars for AlabamaWorks, Maryland Workforce Association, NAJA, NAWB, and SETA—will focus on trauma-informed care as
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March 2020…Mandated COVID-19 restrictions forced KRA to close all its offices, which included the Work Participation, Placement, and Support Services Program that transitioned staff to a work-from-home status, and transferred individual- and group-participation activities to effective remote- and virtual-service venues. July 2020…As certain restrictions eased, KRA opened the Baltimore City office—in compliance with CDC Guidance—to individual customers, by appointment only.  In addition, we continued to provide remote-learning and virtual services for individuals and groups, as appropriate. July 2021…KRA/Baltimore City staff met the “first day back” challenge with organization and flexibility.  Pre-arranged scheduling allowed adequate time to welcome each customer, and
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For NevadaWorks, KRA operates the American Job Center of Nevada (AJCN)—hub of the comprehensive Reno-based One Stop Career Center (OSCC) system—in collaboration with an exceptional network of co-located agencies and organizations.  One such entity, the DETR Business Services Office (BSO), builds relationships with local employers to assist in fulfilling hiring requirements. Ms. Robin Walsh, KRA Program Manager, reports, “John Tolbert is truly representative of our AJCN customers whose lives are being changed through our OSCC partnerships.  By reducing barriers to employment, and offering resources that increase options, we empower our jobseekers to participate in a prosperous and thriving community workforce.
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Mr. Torre Lewis, 27, applied for TANF-TCA benefits through the Baltimore City Department of Social Services (BCDSS), which required him to enroll in KRA’s Job Readiness Program—a critical component of the Work Participation, Placement, and Support Services Program—prior to occupational-skills training (OST) and/or job-placement. One such OST opportunity is the KRA Knowledge2Career Construction Academy (K2C-CA) co-funded by the BCDSS for TCA customers and the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development for WIOA-eligible Youth jobseekers. KRA is a licensed provider-partner of the Home Builders Institute’s award-winning PACT (Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Training) Program, compliant with National Construction Skill Standards, as well as National Association of Home Builders
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Ida McCarty sold her food-production company in 2019, and hadn’t worked in IT for 16 years, but recently was proud to report, “Because of my…IT knowledge and experience in the food industry, I was hired by Mason Dixon Foods [as the] Director of Product Management, responsible for…IT integration and software design, operations, and production.  In 8 months, I went from being laid off due to COVID, to securing fulltime employment in upper management.” Ms. McCarty’s success was made possible through the innovative collaboration of the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership; KRA, the Chicago Codes Boot Camp (Chi Codes) Administrator; and Coding
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Young KRA Customer’s Career is Flying High In 2015, KRA launched its proprietary Knowledge2Career (K2C) Academy, providing Out-of-School Youth, 18-to-24, occupational-skills training linked directly to employment with local businesses in high-demand industries. Established in 2019, the KRA/K2C Academy in Greater Hartford, CT—operated in partnership with the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) for Capital Workforce Partners—targets the Manufacturing Industry, providing 72 hours of Tooling U-SME coursework that complies with CT/DOL Pre-Apprenticeship requirements. Anthony “Tony” Harrington, KRA/K2C Operations Manager, reports, ”Traditionally, one  of the most challenging aspects of developing a truly diverse K2C training program has been recruiting and encouraging young women to
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KRA customers enrolled in the Work Participation, Placement, and Support Services Program, operated for the Baltimore City Department of Social Services, are required to complete KRA’s Job Readiness Program (JRP) prior to occupational-skills training and/or job-placement opportunities. Prior to March 2020, JRP workshops were conducted in person, classroom-style—not a suitable venue with the onset of pandemic-related physical-distancing requirements. However, KRA/Baltimore City remained responsible for providing JRP workshops—critical to successful career-development planning—that focus on workplace-readiness skills, e.g. resume-building, interviewing, and dressing for success and soft-skills development, e.g. worksite communications and problem-solving. Inspired by the Baltimore City School System’s virtual-learning program, Alyssa
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For the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership, KRA operates both the Westside American Job Center (WAJC) and the Chatham Workforce and Education Center (CWEC), on the Southside. Every month, KRA/Chicago distributes information on Virtual Job Readiness Training (JRT) Workshops and Hiring/Resources  Events to WAJC and CWEC participants for registration and participation. In addition to the June 10 Virtual Hiring/Resource Event [WAJC], convened collaboratively with the West Town Community Committee, and the June 25 Career Empowerment Workshop [WAJC/CWEC], other June WAJC events include:  Mondays – WIOA and ConstructionWorks Training Orientation. Tuesdays – Combined JRT on Resumes (Learning the importance of using a
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Sylvia Henry, KRA Operations Manager, Las Vegas One-Stop Career Centers (LV-OSCC), reports, “In response to mandated COVID-19 requirements, the LV-OSCC had to adapt its expansive service-delivery system [SDS], including critical communication processes, at an unprecedented pace.” Operated for Workforce Connections (WC), the WDB for Southern Nevada, the LV-OSCC is a collaborative system of WIOA-services providers, training partners, and community-based organizations that contribute customized workforce-services resources through one Comprehensive OSCC facility and 10 public-library affiliate sites—prior to the application of pandemic-related restrictions. After LV-OSCC offices closed to the public, the network relied primarily on daily blast e-mails to communicate information critical
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Another Customer-Intern Success Leads to KRA Career Path Shawnda Walker, Christine Washington, and Nikia Washington (no relation) have much in common: they are extremely Knowledgeable, Responsible, and Achievement-oriented young women, and they were outstanding customers, whose KRA qualities led to their employment with the company. Also, they share an integral connection to the KRA Job Readiness Program (JRP), a requirement of which is a Work Experience (WEX) Internship, usually developed through partnerships with local private- and public-sector organizations. However, these particular JRP participants were selected to serve their Internships with KRA. Shawnda is currently the WEX Program Supervisor, as well
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