Workplace Fund Offers Immigrants and Businesses New Opportunity in Berkshires
PITTSFIELD, Mass. - The Learn at Work Program is a statewide initiative to streamline access to $1.4 million in state funds for much-needed workplace basic skills and English language classes. The program will provide resources to partnerships between labor, business, and service providers and will offer a pathway to economic self-sufficiency as well as a stable and skilled workforce.An informational event for local employers, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) providers and organizations that work closely with the immigrant population will be held at Berkshire Regional Employment Board on November 12th at 10:00 AM at 1 Fenn Street, Suite 201, Pittsfield. This event will provide details of the fund, copies of the Request for Proposal, successful partnership examples, and the opportunity for stakeholders to network and form partnerships.
Made possible by the combined efforts of the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), this fund marks a five-percent boost in current state funding for Adult Basic Education. The fund also provides opportunities for business, labor and community partnerships to develop new, creative ways to reach workers who very much want and need basic skills and English to perform and excel at work. Currently almost 17,000 Massachusetts residents are on waiting lists for state-funded English classes.
The historically low-level of immigration to the Berkshires has, to some extent, kept the region from receiving the level of support its rapidly growing immigrant population. In Pittsfield, for example, the U.S. Census estimates that, between 2000 and 2004, the Latino population grew by 26 percent. Currently in the Berkshires the immigrant population is the fastest growing segment of our workforce making investment in them of utmost importance to the area's future.
Local co-sponsors of the event include Berkshire County Regional Employment Board; Berkshire Central Labor Council; SABES West; Berkshire Immigrant Center; and Berkshire Chamber of Commerce. For more information about the Learn at Work Program, please contact Frank Soults at Frank Soults, Communications Director, MIRA at 617-350-5480 ext. 204.
