Time To "Skill Up" | New Haven Independent:
The key to getting more people from New Haven into local jobs: increasing the number of adults proficient in math and literacy.
That’s what an outside consultant told the city, after surveying employment programs and skill training programs available to the many New Haveners who are regularly out of work.
John Padilla (pictured above at left), of New Paradigms Consulting, joined Mayor Toni Harp and city officials Thursday at City Hall to present the group’s findings, including recommendations for strategies to improve job opportunities and target goals over the next five years.
Hired last fall, the consulting firm spent five months compiling the report. Click here to read the full report of recommendations for local workforce growth.
As several large-scale construction projects near completion in the city, “my administration continues to work to make sure those [job] opportunities are dispersed throughout the city,” Mayor Harp said. City officials are “urging local employers to add to their workforces,” and training “hundreds of eager job seekers.”
Three main barriers exist that prevent people from being employed in New Haven, said Harp. First, many don’t have access to efficient public transportation, a physical barrier to getting to a job. Second, many have criminal records. And third, there’s a “gap between the education and the job skill of those looking for work,” with many lacking basic computer skills or even the ability “to complete the job applications.”
The city is addressing the first two barriers, by working with the state to re-route bus lines and byrevamping the prison re-entry program Project Fresh Start, Harp said.
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