Gov. Ned Lamont’s Office of Workforce Strategy (OWS) has launched an updated strategic plan, and is seeking to get control of its remaining $30 million budget to implement new initiatives, including an artificial intelligence tech talent accelerator program.
The office was originally created under the Department of Economic and Community Development, where the bond funding still resides, but has since become an independent entity.
“The remaining $30 million is going through a reauthorization process, to come directly to OWS in one lump sum and for us to be able to utilize that for seeding additional innovations within the system,” said Kelli-Marie Vallieres, the state’s chief workforce officer.
The original strategic plan dates back to the early years of the Lamont administration, and was then powered during the COVID-19 pandemic by $70 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
That money was used to stand up a portal called Career ConneCT, which brought together the resources of the state’s federally funded workforce boards and community organizations to try to funnel low-income job seekers through a single system to access training, mentoring and employer connections, as well as support services like child care, transportation and even housing.
Vallieres used a recent Workforce Summit hosted by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association to tout the success of the Career ConneCT program, which so far has trained 7,000 people, with 77% of those achieving employment.
“We’ve exceeded every metric that we’ve set,” she said.
Reposted from the Hartford Business Journal. Click here to read the full article.