Recently, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) held a press conference at the Hartford KRA/CTWorks One-Stop Career Center (One-Stop) to announce his proposal, Pathways Back to Work, that “would subsidize employment for unemployed adults, promote summer and year-round jobs for youth, and create a competitive-grant program to support work-based training, and tax credits for hiring long-term unemployed.” Senator Blumenthal discussed skill-training programs that he will introduce in the US Senate as a part of a larger job-creation initiative to cut unemployment and boost economic recovery. Also speaking at the press conference were Thomas Phillips, President/CEO of KRA’s client, Capital Workforce Partners (CWP), and Mark Polzella, CT DOL Operations Manager for all CTWorks One-Stops throughout the State. Blumenthal laid out the next step, a job-centered, work-based training initiative, in a series of measures, some of which will support community colleges and provide assistance to vocational and technical schools. He said, “These proposals will help put people in Connecticut and across the country back to work. Congress must put aside posturing and partisan politics and focus on real steps to help businesses grow and hire, and to give job seekers the skills they need to find employment.” Phillips added, “As the region’s Workforce Investment Board, one of our roles is to convene and engage key stakeholders from higher education, secondary education and the business community to address today’s critical unemployment situation, as well as longer-term talent challenges related to demographic trends. We welcome and support Senator Blumenthal’s legislation that will help us address these challenges.” The full-text press release can be found in the second column, third story down at: http://www.capitalworkforce.org
