Around $170K of the $500K the city is awarding in workforce development is going towards immigrants and refugees.
While I am not opposed to teaching them English and using taxdollars to do it, shouldn’t our #1 focus be on actual job training, when it comes to workforce development? When I think of teaching immigrants our language, I look at that as a social service, not a workforce development service.
What do you think? I think it is a very fine line;
Workforce Development Pilot Program Recommends Funding Eight Organizations – Applications Still Being Accepted
In January, the City of Sioux Falls launched a Workforce Development Pilot Program to support and explore activities to address workforce challenges and to drive workforce growth and development. Today, the City announced its intent to award funding to eight local entities that are well-positioned to address workforce development needs in Sioux Falls. Grant awards are proposed for:
- Employment Edge—$25,000
Program to focus on recruiting, screening, and finding jobs for nonviolent offenders recently released from state or federal custody - Forward Sioux Falls—$50,000
Creation of a comprehensive community workforce action plan - Globe University—$100,000
Development of individualized training programs for businesses that incorporate on the job and academic learning - Home Builders Association of the Sioux Empire, Associated General Contractors of South Dakota, and Sioux Empire Manufacturers—$50,000
Creation of mobile training labs to teach construction and manufacturing skills - Multi-Cultural Center of Sioux Falls—$70,020
Workforce training program for immigrants and refugees - Sioux Empire Society for Human Resource Management—$34,250
Will host a community-wide workforce development conference - Sioux Falls School District, Career and Technical Education Academy—$12,250
Electrical skills program that provides post-secondary credit for high school students - Training Solutions Institute, a division of Southeast Technical Institute—$99,408
English language and job skills training for immigrant and ethnic populations
The eight awards total $440,928. The City has received 38 applications requesting a total of $1,932,715. An evaluation committee and the City Attorney’s Office reviewed each application. Ten finalists were invited to make a presentation to the group and were scored by the committee according to:
- Level of impact
- Investment made by the proposer to execute the program
- Proposer’s qualifications to successfully deliver the program
- Quality of interview