Posts Tagged ‘workforce’

The state of Texas is launching a pilot program to help returning Army veterans find employment more quickly, particularly in growing industries such the medical, energy and technology fields, the Texas Workforce Commission announced last week. The State of Texas Soldier Employment Initiative, funded through a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, is intended to develop new approaches to enhance outreach and re-employment services for Army unemployment compensation claimants …

The $37 billion in sequester cuts the Pentagon is taking in fiscal 2013 likely will result in a “sharp drop” in contractors, Comptroller Robert Hale told the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee on Tuesday. “The majority of [the sequester] is going to come out of contractors — about $2 billion will come out of furloughs,” Hale told lawmakers, reported American Forces Press Service. That means a drop in the number of contractors in the department. “I don’t know yet how much, because the year isn’t over, but I think there will be a sharp drop,” Hale said. He told the subcommittee that about 700,000 contractors work throughout DOD.

A national program offering veterans multi-year apprenticeships in the construction industry has proven to be a good fit for transitioning service members. The Helmets to Hardhats program, run by a nonprofit, matches veterans with skilled training programs for the gamut of construction trades. At the training center for the Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 19 in Philadelphia, apprentices enter a four-and-a-half-year program with a starting pay of $17.86 per hour …

Since 1999, the 97th Maintenance Squadron at Altus Air Force Base has hired 112 students through an aircraft maintenance technician internship program it participates in with a training academy in the city of Altus, Okla. The Southwest Technology Center provides the initial aircraft technical training courses in airframe and aircraft engine skills to the mechanic candidates. And the 97th Maintenance Squadron provides hands-on experience to the soon-to-be aircraft mechanics …

Workforce groups in Dallas this week launched a new initiative intended to put a dent in the high rates of unemployment among military veterans and the long-term unemployed. The Dallas effort — sponsored by Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas and the YWCA of Metropolitan Dallas — is the first community to benefit from the national expansion of the Platform to Employment program, which was started in Connecticut by The WorkPlace, a regional workforce development board in Bridgeport …

Thousands of DOD civilians and contractors would be eliminated under a provision in the final version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill calling for a reduction of about 5 percent in those workforces. The provision, section 955, directs the department to reduce the civilian and service contractor workforces from fiscal 2012 through FY 2017 to achieve at least the same amount of savings from planned cuts in military personnel …

In an effort to boost the number of students seeking high-tech careers, eight major tenant organizations at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., last week agreed to expand educational outreach efforts in science, technology, engineering and math with Harford County Public Schools. The partnership is intended to increase participation and improve students’ performance in STEM. “We are committed to tomorrow,” said Maj. Gen. Robert Ferrell, commanding general of Army Communications-Electronics Command and senior installation commander. “We are providing an opportunity to ensure that we have the right resources with the right intellect and energy …

In what it is describing as a cost-cutting measure, the Pentagon announced last week it will eliminate the positions of more than 400 military personnel, along with 500 family members, at Lajes Field on the Portuguese island of Terceira in the Azores. The move will shrink the current workforce of 1,100 U.S. and Portuguese personnel at the base by at least half by October 2014, officials said. Airmen assigned to Lajes in the future will serve one-year, unaccompanied tours …

A new initiative launched by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is aimed at protecting the state’s installations, partially by recruiting contractors to defense communities to help increase the military value of local bases. The Governor’s Defense Initiative, launched in November, isn’t specifically focused on the next base closure round, but it will attempt to ensure DOD policymakers are aware of Georgia’s military assets. “You can’t wait until BRAC lists bases that are going to close to start worrying about these things …

A provision that would cut DOD’s civilian and contractor workforce by an estimated 5 percent over the next five years is one of many sections of the Senate’s fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill the White House objected to as part of a veto threat issued Thursday. The provision, added to the annual policy measure by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), could eliminate up to 36,000 civilian jobs and tens of thousands of contractor positions through FY 2017 …