L.A. County Workforce Board Celebrates Ten-Year Mark

LOS ANGELES, July 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The Los Angeles County Workforce Investment Board (WIB) is a federally-mandated board, certified by the state in partnership with the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, that provides key policy decisions affecting the workforce development system of the L.A. County Workforce Investment Area. The WIB administers the distribution of Federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funds to implement local workforce development programs and services to businesses, job seekers and youth through a network of 17 "One-Stop" Career Centers and three alternative sites managed by a network of contracted partners called WorkSource California. The area served by the WorkSource Centers encompasses 58 of 88 cities in Los Angeles County, and all 151 unincorporated areas of the county, which includes nearly four million residents.

"The ten-year mark is one that calls for both celebration and intense reflection," said L.A. County WIB Chair, Dennis Neder. "We are in a critical time of rebuilding our economy, as L.A. County has over 600,000 unemployed, and businesses are still skeptical of hiring in this 'wait and see' economy."

Since its inception, the WIB has received over $474 million to serve the county's residents with employment and training services that target businesses, job seekers and youth. Its customer base has grown from 180,000 to over 700,000 per year, from 2001 to 2010.

"Our Board has spent considerable time and energy in looking at how we can best leverage our funding to support the 11 key industry sectors that drive L.A. County, all of which have experienced moderate to severe impact from the latest recession," said L.A. County WIB Executive Director, Richard Verches. "This translates to strategies that will provide us with continual input from the business community to make sure that labor pools can meet current and future demands."

Some of these strategies include 1) the implementation of an innovative curriculum developed under the direction of the WIB's Mature Worker Council; 2) enhancing the role of the WIB's Youth Council to coordinate policies and programs related to youth employment and training; 3) the development of a blueprint for addressing the employment needs of juvenile and young adult offenders returning from correctional facilities; 4) implementing a clean energy workforce training program around alternative and renewable fuel and vehicle technologies; and 5) spearheading the efforts around one of the critical goals of the L.A. Economic Development Corporation's five-year strategic plan - - "preparing an educated workforce."

Verches said, "We celebrate our ten-year mark, but only briefly. There's so much work to be done quickly in order to get our economy back on track."

Seven of the WIB members have dedicated their service for all ten years including Dr. Dennis Neder, Chair, Ted Anderson, Dick Nichols, Mike Patel, Frank Roberts, Irshad Haque and Helen Romero Shaw.

For a copy of the L.A. County WIB's ten-year anniversary report, download at http://bit.ly/bhOM4j. To learn more about its WorkSource Centers' employment and training solutions, go to www.WorkSourceCalifornia.com

SOURCE Los Angeles County Workforce Investment Board