MOED Career One-Stop Network
Mary Sloat, director of MOED’s Career One-Stop Network, described
the structure and services of the four career centers:
East-Side One-Stop Career Center
3001 East Madison Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21205
410-396-9030
Southwest One-Stop Career Center
201 South Arlington Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21223
Northwest One-Stop Career Center (administered by
ACS)
2401 Liberty Heights Ave.
Mondawmin Mall, Ste. 302
Baltimore, MD 21215
410-523-1060
Baltimore Works One-Stop Career Center (administered
by AFL-CIO)
1100 North Eutaw St.
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-767-2148
Funded by the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998, Baltimore’s
One-Stop centers use a triage model of service delivery, with three
tiers of service:
1) Core services – job seekers conduct mostly self-directed
job searches using online job banks such as CareerNet, America’s
Labor Exchange, and America’s Job Bank; receive assistance with
resume development; and have access to the center’s fax and
copy machines.
2) Intensive services – job seekers work with certified
Career Development Facilitators on for job search and placement services,
and can receive educational services and some vocational skills training.
3) Customized Training – through Individual Training
Accounts, job seekers are able to enroll in Employ Baltimore training
courses customized to meet the needs of area employers.
Career centers also offer digital learning labs where job seekers
and service provider staff members can learn to use office software.
Each center sees approximately 18,000 job seekers annually.
2. Employ Baltimore
Terry Jennifer Boone and Susan Tagliaferro described Employ Baltimore,
MOED’s business services division. Employ Baltimore works with
local employers to provide pre-screening, outreach, and recruitment
of job seekers through customized training programs, hiring halls,
job fairs, and human resources support. Employ Baltimore’s database
lists approximately 400 employers in the five target industries identified
by the Baltimore Workforce Investment Board as growth sectors: Health
Care, Information Technology, Business Services, Construction, and
Hospitality.
In order to partner with Employ Baltimore, employers must offer full-time
employment with health benefits and family-supporting wages, and must
pay 50 percent of customized training costs. If an employer offers
on-the-job training, MOED pays up to 50 percent of wages for employees
undergoing training.
Customized training lasts between one and four months depending on
the program, and costs approximately $3,500 per person. Ms. Tagliaferro
said that funding for customized training has been reduced over the
past three years. In 2000, MOED received $900,000 for customized training;
by 2003 that amount had dwindled to $300,000. Funding for customized
training comes from several sources:
• Skills-Based Training for Employment Promotion (STEP)
– under this State program, low-skill incumbent workers in the
healthcare industries are trained for higher-skill occupations. Earlier
this year, funding for this program was reduced from $1 million to
$500,000.
• Metro-Tech – a $22 million U.S. Department
of Labor grant to work with employers with a need for qualified information
technology workers. Due to changes in the economy, the parameters
of this grant were expanded to include workers in the biotech industry.
Implemented three years ago, Metro-Tech grants will sunset soon.
• MD Business Works – administered by
the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation (DLLR),
this newly established initiative will provide small businesses with
skilled workers through customized training programs. Baltimore will
receive $75,000 of the $500,000 to be allocated to Maryland’s
12 Workforce Investment Board areas. While modeled on a combination
of STEP, Metro-Tech, and the Department of Business and Economic Development’s
Partnership for Workforce Quality program, MD Business Works is not
targeted toward low-income workers.
Attendees discussed ways in which nonprofit workforce development
providers could partner with MOED One-Stop staff to improve employment
outcomes for clients. One possible method is an informal memorandum
of understanding in which nonprofit service providers and MOED staff
would agree to share information about clients’ job placement,
retention, and advancement.
The Baltimore Employment Roundtable wishes to thank Terry Jennifer
Boone, Patrick Jackson, Mary Sloat, and Susan Tagliaferro for an informative
presentation and a fruitful discussion.
Next Meeting
| Date: |
Thursday, October 23, 2003 |
| Time: |
8:30 – 10:00 a.m. |
| Host: |
Job Opportunities Task Force |
| Contact: |
Kevin Griffin Moreno, JOTF: 410-234-8046 or
kevin@jotf.org |
