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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: 202/219-6652
A $1.5 million grant that will enable more than 500 women in six states
to take their first steps toward better employment and wage opportunities was
announced today by the Labor Department. Nontraditional Employment for Women
(NEW) demonstration program grants were awarded to training projects in
Connecticut, Georgia, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah.
"Women are often left out of training programs that prepare workers for
skilled jobs and higher earnings in occupations with growing employment
demand," said Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich. "These programs offer training
not only for more familiar nontraditional occupations such as blue-collar
construction trades, but also for emerging industries such as semiconductor
manufacturing technology, aerospace production and tool design and
environmental technology."
"What is important about these programs is that they offer many women a
chance at self-sufficiency and economic security," said Ida L. Castro, "not to
mention a sense of pride and accomplishment." Castro is the acting director of
the Women's Bureau, the department agency responsible for the NEW grants.
The purpose of the grants is to build the capacity of the Job Training
Partnership Act (JTPA) system (including one-stop career centers and/or
workforce development boards) by expanding the range of training and job
placement delivered to economically disadvantaged women, 22 years and older.
The grants include:
- $252,500 to New Mexico for the Nontraditional Employment for Women
Project to recruit, assess and counsel women for nontraditional careers. The
program will serve the counties of Bernalillo, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San
Miguel, Sandoval, and Santa Fe as demonstration sites.
- $228,000 to Utah for expansion of the 'NEW' Choices Project in Salt
Lake County to the Wasatch Front South and three other sites in Utah. The
project will direct 65 women into the building trades, where participants will
build and sell houses to low-income families.
- $380,466 to Oregon for a Nontraditional Employment for Women Project
to help its six JTPA service delivery areas provide statewide technical
assistance to promote 112 women in nontraditional occupations.
- $251,780 to Minnesota for the Minnesota New Traditions Project,
designed to cause systemic change in the way training is delivered and
received. Workforce center-based NEW Employment coordinators at the state and
local levels will provide technical assistance and develop 1) a software
package to identify local nontraditional employment; 2) an audio/visual library
in the workforce center; 3) a mentoring project for women entering
nontraditional careers; and 4) an annual conference on nontraditional
employment.
- $252,167 to Connecticut for the Pathways to Economic Independence
project to test a broad range of strategies.
- $135,087 to Georgia for the Nontraditional Employment-Career
Opportunities for Women (NECO) project to provide training and placement for 75
JTPA-eligible women in aircraft structural mechanics, drafting, diesel
mechanics, automotive technology and emergency medical technology. An important
component of NECO is the state's commitment to replicate and institutionalize
the program for JTPA-eligible women in the 33 institutes in the Department of
Technical and Adult Education system.
Funds for the NEW demonstration program grants are authorized under the
Job Training Partnership Act as amended by the Nontraditional Employment for
Women (NEW) Act, effective July 1992. With the award of these grants amounting
to $1.5 million, the department completes the four-year NEW Act demonstration
program. Twenty-three projects in 22 states have received grants, providing a
preliminary estimated increase in JTPA-NTO training and placement of more than
2,000 women over the 1992-95 period.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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