New Orleans Workforce Development Team to offer free short-term job training
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NEW ORLEANS, LA (WGNO) — Mayor Cantrell announced, unemployment funds will likely end within the next few weeks. Luckily, the city has come up with a plan to help residents get back on their feet.
Judith Slack is a singer and songwriter. Her living was based on entertaining people in New Orleans. However, since the coronavirus pandemic, she’s been out of work and has to rely on unemployment benefits which are scheduled to end on July 31st, 2020.
“My biggest fear would be losing everything I’ve worked for financially,” Slack told WGNO. “If the unemployment was not there at all, then we would be not just in a health crisis but we would be in a financial crisis.”
As an attempt to lighten the load on struggling residents, Cantrell announced that the New Orleans Workforce Development Team is now offering short-term job training for free. The job training is available to all ages and we’re told, there will be several opportunities to land a job at the end of training.
“We’re offering quick, quick, quick training- three to four weeks- where they can transition into patient care tech jobs. But then we have the technical side as well where we’re teaching people to upscale. We’re trying to upscale them or re-train them,” Director of The Office of Workforce Development, Sunae Villavaso said on Tuesday afternoon.
Villavaso also says, jobs will start at $12 an hour but Slack says, that’s simply not enough. “I propose that we have unemployment benefits of a stimulus until the end of 2020,” Slack suggested. “That would give the people, you know, an ease of mind while they get their stuff together.”
While Villavaso believes unemployment benefits will still end this month, she hopes residents take advantage of the short-term job training to solidify employment.
“They have access to resources that they never had before and therefore, that creates the opportunities,” said Villavaso.
To sign up for the New Orleans Workforce Development Team short-term job training, call (504) 658-4500.
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