The Warren County Board of Supervisors has approved $523,000 for several new and expanded workforce development initiatives. The funds have been allocated from the $12.4 million the county received from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and must be used by 2026.
In a press release announcing the decision, Kevin Geraghty, Chairman of the county’s Board of Supervisors, said: "We are committed to doing whatever we can to alleviate the issues we are seeing today while preparing our local workforce for the years to come.”
With no guarantee that such an influx of funding will ever happen again, the county wants to ensure these initiatives have an immediate and lasting impact. The selected initiatives have been designed to provide support across all levels of workforce development – from students and job seekers to current employees and businesses, officials said.
The largest single allocation is $250,000 that will cover four years of salary and benefits for a new staff member in the county’s Office of Employment & Training.
This individual will be tasked with helping create and foster new long-term programs and partnerships with the school districts, BOCES, labor unions, and businesses, the press release announcing the initiatives said.
“I believe that youth development plus workforce development equals economic development,” said Liza Ochsendorf, Warren County Director of Employment & Training. “We need to engage our students at a younger age through job fairs and other career exploration activities so that they are aware of all the opportunities in their own backyard.”
In-demand local industries that will be highlighted in these outreach efforts include healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, education, and construction, she said.
$85,000 of the ARPA funds goes toward workforce training programs, including “upskilling” current job-holders making them stronger candidates for promotions. The belief is that if employees have opportunities for growth and professional development, they will be more likely to remain with their current employers, Ochsendorf said.
Fund will be directed at unemployed or underemployed workers who are interested in obtaining certifications in needed fields such as nursing or commercial trucking.
The county will spend $30,000 on new iPads, laptop computers, two training televisions, and a wifi printer to assist individuals who lack the technology needed for certain types of job searches or skills training, according to the press announcement.
An equally important beneficiary of the ARPA funding will be businesses themselves. The county has plans to partner with consultants and chambers of commerce on a series of seminars and programming that will share ideas and best practices used by successful companies. These events will be free to attend.
“We want to help employers be the best employers they can be so that they don’t have a revolving door of workers,” Ochsendorf said.