FORT KENT, Maine — Five collaborative adult education programs in the state will evenly split $350,000 in grant money to fund separate workforce training programs aimed at meeting immediate job openings in their respective regions.
The St. John Valley Adult and Community Education Collaborative, the Lewiston Adult Education Program, RSU 24 Adult Education in Sullivan, RSU 39 Eastern Aroostook County Adult Education and RSU 25 Adult Education in Bucksport and Ellsworth each received a $70,000 Adult Education Integrated Education and Training Pilot Grant.
The funds were awarded by the Maine Department of Education, which received the money from the the federal government, according to Peter Caron, director of adult education in SAD 27 in Fort Kent.
According to Caron, the idea behind all five projects is to develop and foster cooperative programs among education, business and government agencies to train individuals for specific jobs.
“We will not only provide educational opportunities and training,” Caron said. “We are also tying the training to immediate state, regional or local workforce needs.”
All five of the projects are pilot or demonstration programs, Caron said, with the hope they will find ways to continue and be replicated around the state.
In the St. John Valley, the SAD 27 and Madawaska School Department adult education programs are partnering with Northern Maine Community College to fund all costs for up to 12 individuals to participate in an “education and training trucking initiative,” according to Caron.
Surveys of St. John Valley trucking companies identified the need for between 30 and 40 trained truckers for anticipated new and replacement drivers in the region, he said.
Students will work toward earning their Maine commercial driver’s licence through Northern Maine Community College’s commercial driving academy next spring, with a focus on operating logging trucks.
“Northern Maine Community College is bringing the program to the St. John Valley,” Caron said. “The grant will help us eliminate the cost of the training for the 12 students.”
There is also money to help offset some on-the-job training costs for those students’ potential employers, Caron said.
In addition to the rigorous Northern Maine Community College commercial driving program, participants also will take part in a two-week session focusing on nondriving aspects of trucking, such as problem solving, decision making, accounting and interviewing skills.
“What these grants focus on is trying to leverage as many resources as we have to address certain needs,” Julie Rabinowitz, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Labor, said. “They are bringing together what the specific industries need with the people who can provide those skills.”
In northern Maine, for example, the Department of Labor has identified trucking as a high-demand, high-wage occupation and a priority employment sector.
“We want to train people who are ready to be interviewed [and] we want them ready to hit the ground running when they have their [commercial driver’s license] in hand,” Rabinowitz said. “This is a model that works across many industries.”
Gail Senese is the Department of Education’s director of adult education and said the focus on partnering among agencies will produce the best qualified employees for jobs that are immediately available.
“The whole approach is to accelerate the path to employment,” she said. “This means you are going to get skills set training and whatever academic training you need at the same time.”
Rabinowitz said it is a welcome departure from the old “random acts of workforce” model where individuals are trained and sent out to search for jobs that may or may not be available.
“That is just not effective,” she said. “What is effective is working with businesses and training people in exactly what those businesses need and making sure the candidates are hireable.”
In RSU 24, which is partnering with University College in Ellsworth, the grant will fund training in the health care and construction fields, according to Ander Thebaud, director of adult education.
“We are going two routes,” she said. “One route is for people who want to work in the health industry but in an office setting and the other is for residential construction.”
Both areas have been listed as high-needs employment by the state, she said.
“As we work and partner with businesses and they become familiar with us we can become a feeder [of trained employees] as they are looking for entry level workers or to expand their workforce,” Thebaud said. “Adult education programs have the flexibility to adapt as training needs change over time.”
In Lewiston, the adult education program will partner with a marketing company to train individuals for 300 new positions at a local call center, according to Eva Giles, adult education director.
“We have learned that when you have job-driven training with available jobs already identified you can build the training pipeline to be more direct so people can move into those jobs faster,” Giles said. “It’s a win-win for the job seekers, the companies and the community [because] you have a skilled workforce ready as soon as the employers are ready.”
The adult education collaborative grant in RSU 25 will focus on training certified nurses aids in partnership with area health care facilities and nursing homes, according to program director Leslie Murauckas.
But it will also incorporate basic employment skills transferable to other jobs, she said.
“We have heard over and over again it is the ‘soft skills’ — the need to show up, don’t be tardy, dress appropriately, be enthusiastic — is what many potential employees need,” Murauckas said. “These are all transferable skills that can work in any other field.”
In RSU 25, participants also will receive on-the-job training in nursing care facilities to see if that is the kind of work they really want.
“Some people can go through all the [CNA] training only to discover at the end of it it’s not the kind of work they want,” Murauckas said. “With our orientation component they can hear about other jobs in the health care facilities that also need kitchen workers and janitorial staff.”
By the end of the RSU 25 grant-funded training, the participants will be ready for existing jobs in the area, she said.
“Our business partners will be hiring,” she said. “The training [the students] get is not just and exercise but it will be rewarded at the end with jobs.”
Which is exactly the point of the pilot projects, according to Rabinowitz.
“The person getting trained, potential employers, schools; everybody puts something in,” she said. “And everyone is getting something out of it.”
