5Q: Scott R. Jensen

 / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
/ PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

1 Rhode Island’s unemployment rate dropped to a post-recession low of 5.9 percent in June. What role have DLT-sponsored job-training programs played in the steady drop?

Although training provided in the public workforce system might have played a part, it’s probably only minor. The biggest factor in the drop of our unemployment rate has been the overall improvement in the U.S. economy. We’ve definitely needed it. The recession started sooner, hit harder and lasted longer here in Rhode Island.

2 Despite this progress, the state still had the highest unemployment of the six New England states in June. What steps are necessary to pull the state out of that statistical basement?

[Gov. Gina M.] Raimondo is on a mission to grow Rhode Island out of the statistical basement. I’m lucky enough to have a hand in a major part of the governor’s jobs agenda – reshaping the workforce system – in a way that the governor, Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor and I believe will spark Rhode Island’s comeback.

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3 In late July, the governor named 21 recipients of Real Jobs Rhode Island planning grants. What is the idea behind this initiative?

The core idea is putting employers at the center of workforce-development efforts to train people for jobs that actually exist now. Real Jobs Rhode Island is demand-driven. It matches workers who need jobs with employers who have open positions but lack applicants with the skills or training to fill them.

4 Once the employers who receive Real Jobs Rhode Island funding come up with training plans, what’s next?

This is where the work really starts. The partnerships will identify the training, education and human resource solutions needed to meet their workforce challenges, and then write very specific plans to implement their solutions. These plans will address immediate, short-term, or long-term skills shortages identified by the employer partners and outline recruitment, training and placement strategies. We are on track for Gov. Raimondo to be able to announce the winners of the implementation grants in November.

5 What DLT programs are proving effective in helping get the unemployed back to work?

DLT is taking the governor’s challenge to innovate seriously. We’re rethinking everything we do in order to connect unemployed Rhode Islanders with their next jobs more quickly. •

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