MANATEE-SARASOTA, FL  (July 23, 2013) – Bank of America has awarded $20,000 to CareerEdge to support workforce solutions programs in the region. CareerEdge is a nonprofit collaborative whose mission is to provide an exceptional labor force to the Manatee-Sarasota region’s growing industries by leveraging community assets and forming high-performing workforce partnerships.

CareerEdge reported successes this quarter in job creation and job-readiness development, and Bank of America responded by awarding $20,000 following a grant request made earlier this year.

“A skilled workforce is important to the strength of a community,” said Bank of America Sarasota President Ed Luecke. “We are proud to have awarded $135,000 in recent years to CareerEdge to support their efforts preparing local workers for successful careers.”

A chief goal of the Bank of America funding is to provide opportunities for unemployed and low-skilled workers to progress in their careers.  One CareerEdge program through which this goal is achieved is Bridges to Careers for Low-Skilled Workers, a unique and transformative job-readiness program.  In addition, CareerEdge funds incentivize companies to train incumbent workers and develop career pathways to increase the skills of their employees. The Bank of America grant award will help fund these operations, as well as capacity building and workforce training development programs.

CareerEdge Executive Director Nathalie deWolf says, “Bank of America continues to support our work to create jobs and help low-skilled workers improve their career paths and therefore their lives.  By leveraging the generous donations of our funders, we are able to provide training and job opportunities that otherwise would not be available.”

As of March 2013, CareerEdge had served 1,846 workers in the region’s healthcare and manufacturing sectors and through its Bridges to Careers program.  Those figures include 390 job-seekers and 1,456 incumbent workers served,resulting in more than 230 promotions, 920 wage increases, and 300 job placements.

A separate impact analysis conducted by Urban Market Ventures indicated that the regional economy has benefitted extensively from CareerEdge’s intervention. The analysis showed that CareerEdge’s first two-year training investments of $1.54 million had resulted in $14.5 million in new wages brought into the Gulf Coast region.

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About Bank of America Corporate Social Responsibility

Bank of America’s commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a strategic part of doing business globally. Our CSR efforts guide how we operate in a socially, economically, financially and environmentally responsible way around the world, to deliver for shareholders, customers, clients and employees. Our goal is to help create economically vibrant regions and communities through lending, investing and giving. By partnering with our stakeholders, we create value that empowers individuals and communities to thrive and contributes to the long-term success of our business. We have several core areas of focus for our CSR, including responsible business practices; environmental sustainability; strengthening local communities with a focus on housing, hunger and jobs; investing in global leadership development; and engaging through arts and culture. As part of these efforts, employee volunteers across the company contribute their time, passion and expertise to address issues in communities where they live and work. Learn more at www.bankofamerica.com/about and follow us on Twitter at @BofA_Community.

MANATEE-SARASOTA COUNTIES, FL (July 11, 2013) – It’s a potential return on investment that is hard to ignore:  The new precision-machining program that begins August 18 at Sarasota County Technical Institute holds the promise of a skilled job with competitive pay upon completion of the one-year course.  That’s because local manufacturers helped design the curriculum to meet real needs in their workforce, and many have committed to hiring successful graduates to fill those vacancies.

“We know there’s a need for the skills being taught in this class, because the employers helped build it,” said Nathalie deWolf, executive director of CareerEdge.  “Local manufacturers will be participating by providing internships and post-graduation jobs for students.”

Among area employers with precision-machining operations are Adams Group, Atlantic Mold and Machining, Cavanaugh Companies, Florida Knife Co., Octex LLC, Southern Springs and Stamping, Sun Hydraulics, and Weber Manufacturing and Supplies.

“There really is no limit to where a precision machinist can take their career,” notes Jennifer Behrens-Schmidt, owner of Atlantic Mold and president of the Sarasota Manatee Manufacturers Association.  “Most precision machinists continue to build their skill set with on-the-job training and go on to become specialists in their fields, earning wages upward of $75,000.  Then there are those, like myself, who have gone on to use their skills to build their own successful manufacturing businesses.”

Organizers envision the 10-month postsecondary course as an opportunity for recent graduates as well as workers who have been laid off and seek to upgrade their skills.  “It’s a fast-track course,” says deWolf.  “Graduates can land a skilled machining job earning $25,000 to $30,000 after only one year of school.”  Pell grants and other financial assistance are available to help offset tuition.

What’s more, notes deWolf, is that the skilled jobs waiting offer career prospects, busting the myth of manufacturing as dirty, low-paying, dead-end work.  “Within a couple of years, these machinists can earn $40,000, and salaries continue to grow from there,” said deWolf.  “It’s a path to sustainable income with significant career-growth potential.”

Prospective students can learn more about the precision-machining class and how to register by calling SCTI at 941.924.1365, extension 62283.

A skills-gap study of the region’s manufacturing sector commissioned by CareerEdge found that more than half of manufacturers see skilled production workers as the sector’s top need, and over 40 percent of jobs have gone unfilled for lack of skilled workers.  Equipped with that data, CareerEdge engaged manufacturers and educators last year in developing a communitywide plan to close skills gaps in the sector and to fill vacancies that are hampering growth.  The SCTI precision-machining course is a direct result of that collaboration.

CareerEdge Funders Collaborative has awarded five grants totaling $205,210 to help Sarasota and Manatee healthcare providers train workers for higher-skilled, better-paying positions in 2013.  CareerEdge also recently revived a bi-county consortium of employers, educators, and community agencies focused on improving workforce development in the healthcare sector.

The five employers receiving grants from CareerEdge to partially offset training costs are Blake Medical Center, Life Care Center of Sarasota, Manatee Memorial Hospital, Pines of Sarasota Foundation, and Venice Regional Medical Center.  The investments will help them train 464 local healthcare workers.  Four of the providers previously received funding from CareerEdge, which is now in its third year of healthcare-training grants.  Venice Regional Medical Center is a new partner for 2013.

Venice Regional identified several areas of training for its employees, including rehabilitative care, critical care, progressive care for nurses, trauma nurse core course, and health information systems.  Employees who complete the training will have necessary occupational skills that align with Venice Regional’s career laddering.  In addition, those earning a credential through their training will be eligible for a pay increase.  “The outcome of this partnership with CareerEdge supports our values in achieving optimal patient outcomes and clinical excellence,” said Peter Wozniak, CEO of Venice Regional Medical Center.

The five employers have committed more than $1.28 million of their own funds toward training their workers in partnership with CareerEdge.  Based on CareerEdge’s funding model, healthcare grantees have assumed an increasingly larger percentage of training costs in successive years as they have seen the benefits of investing in their workforces.

“These employers’ significant contributions show the value they have seen in making workforce investment a priority,” said Mark Pritchett, senior vice president of Gulf Coast Community Foundation and co-chair of CareerEdge.  “Their employees are more skilled and compensated accordingly, morale is improved, patient satisfaction is higher, and we think that leads to increased quality of care overall for the region.”  Gulf Coast Community Foundation acts as the fiscal agent for CareerEdge.

Beyond grants for worker training, CareerEdge is expanding its impact on the region’s healthcare sector by leading a bi-county working group focused on healthcare-specific workforce issues.  The previously named Bi-County Healthcare Committee, which was formed by Suncoast Workforce but dissolved when its funding lapsed in 2010, has been revived by CareerEdge in response to employer demand.  The newly named Sarasota Manatee Healthcare Collaborative has been meeting since January, with more than 30 employers and educators participating.

“We provide an open forum to share and learn best practices, discuss challenges, and arrive at solutions together,” said Veronica Lequeux, vice president of human resources at Blake Medical Center and chair of the Sarasota Manatee Healthcare Collaborative.  According to Lequeux, the group in its current iteration has evolved much like the issues within the healthcare industry have.  “Today, as a stronger partnership than ever, we focus on promoting system changes at a regional level that will impact the community at large,” she said.

Jennifer Carp, assistant director of CareerEdge, notes that working with the Sarasota Manatee Healthcare Collaborative will enable CareerEdge to widen the scope of services it provides and help make the region’s healthcare sector more competitive.  CareerEdge intends to invest in trainings and other initiatives through the consortium, said Carp.

MANATEE/SARASOTA, FL (October 9, 2012) CareerEdge Funders Collaborative will graduate 14 local residents of North Port from their Bridges to Careers program this Friday, October 12^th  at 11:00am

“I learned so much about myself and how to handle situations differently or to even look at them from a different perspective because of Bridges to Careers.” Pamela, a participant of the training said.

The efforts of CareerEdge are focused on diminishing skill gaps and helping employers locate and develop qualified and skilled workers through a sector-approach.

North Port has suffered greatly from high rates of chronic unemployment. “We chose to partner with Job Connection at Goodwill Industries in North Port because they’re doing great work and we wanted to leverage the efforts and great strides their Job Connection is already making in the community,” CareerEdge Executive Director Mireya Eavey said.

The goal of this project was to train individuals faced with disadvantaging situations to improve skills, retool their abilities and make them work ready. Microsoft Unlimited Potential and Bank of America granted CareerEdge with the funding that made Bridges to Careers possible.

As technology evolves employers seek individuals with advanced computer skills. Through digital literacy training, which is a key component of the program participants are able to obtain the skills needed to keep a competitive edge as they pursue employment opportunities.

“As funders collaborative our goal is to convene community organizations, employers, and educational institutions to avoid duplication of efforts and so everyone can contribute to the highest levels of success for those who participate in our programs” Eavey stated.

MANATEE-SARASOTA, FL (May 4, 2012) – An independent analysis of the CareerEdge Funders Collaborative finds that the nonprofit workforce-development program is producing millions of dollars in new wages and economic impact for the Manatee-Sarasota region.  The April 2012 analysis also documents why the organization’s innovative approach could serve as a high-impact, cost-effective workforce-training model for the rest of Florida.

“This independent research confirms what we have long believed—that when you deeply engage employers, funders, and local workforce programs as true partners, you get amazing results,” said Damian Thorman, National Program Director at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and chair of the Investors Committee for the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.  Knight Foundation is one of the original investors in CareerEdge, having seeded the bi-county workforce-development effort with a $1-million grant in 2009.

Conducted by Urban Market Ventures, with data review by Capital Analytics, the analysis finds that $1.54 million in investments by CareerEdge in 2011 and so far in 2012 will result in nearly $3 million in annual earnings increases for incumbent workers at local employers, and more than $5.6 million in new annual wages for jobseekers placed in new positions.  The regional impact of those investments includes nearly $4.3 million in new, “value added” income that is being pumped into the local economy.

“Each year’s investment requires about four years to bear full fruit, in terms of the pay raises and promotions that workers will earn by completing CareerEdge programs,” noted Mireya Eavey, executive director of CareerEdge. “So we will see an even larger share of the impacts in years two, three, and four for each worker.”

The most tangible impacts on workers, according to the analysis, are the pay raises and new wages they earn as a result of CareerEdge training programs.  The study found that 883 incumbent workers who participated will increase their household income by $3,376 per year.  Combined, the cumulative annual earnings increase for those workers is $2.98 million.

CareerEdge also helped place 284 jobseekers into new positions in 2011, including 139 previously unemployed individuals.  Those former jobseekers will earn $5.62 million a year in new wages, on top of which near-term pay raises are expected to add another $628,300 in cumulative annual earnings.

While the study focused on the real-world impacts on individual workers, it also reports that local employers—the other “customer” in the CareerEdge training model—and the regional economy as a whole are benefitting substantially.  Although some new jobs that CareerEdge secured would eventually have been filled by other workers, the analysis showed that 50 percent of the new wages for CareerEdge workers pours new income into the local economy.  All told, workers who started their CareerEdge training in either 2011 or 2012 will earn an added $8.59 million per year, $4.28 million of which is new, “value added” income for the regional economy.  Through spending, the economic “multiplier effect” of that new income is nearly $3 million per year in income to other local businesses and workers.  Combined, then, CareerEdge metes out a $7.28-million increase in the Gross Regional Product.

The analysis suggests that CareerEdge’s career-laddering model could double the region’s rate of job creation, and do so eight to 10 times more cost-effectively than prevailing workforce models.  “What I find most important in this evaluation is the hard evidence that our career-ladder model is working,” said Mark Pritchett, Senior Vice President for Community Investment at Gulf Coast Community Foundation, which is another initial investor in CareerEdge and co-chair of its investors committee.  “Workers achieve higher wages and gain new opportunities faster when we work closely with employers.”

The full analysis is available on the CareerEdge website at http://www.CareerEdgeFunders.org and on the Gulf Coast Community Foundation website at GulfCoastCF.org.

Sidebars:

By the Numbers: CareerEdge Impact on Workers’ Lives and Regional Economy
•  $1.54 million – CareerEdge investments in training in 2011 and 2012
•  2,568 – workers trained in the Manatee-Sarasota region
•  $8.59 million – total annual wage increases for 2011 and ’12 CareerEdge-trained workers
•  $4.28 million – total of above that is new income for local economy
•  $2.99 million – new annual income to other businesses through “multiplier effect” spending
•  $7.28 million – total increase in Gross Regional Product from CareerEdge
•  $7,700 – annual wage increase for CareerEdge workers previously classified as “low low-income”

Help Wanted from Manufacturers
The analysis shows that CareerEdge has helped existing training programs, like those at local community colleges, evolve their offerings to meet the real-time market needs of employers.  Now CareerEdge is asking local manufacturers, large and small, to help identify training needs in their sector.

CareerEdge will launch an online survey May 14 to “understand and quantify the skills gap for manufacturing jobs in Sarasota and Manatee counties,” said CareerEdge’s Eavey.  “We want to specifically identify the jobs and skills manufacturers lack as they seek to grow their companies.”  Created with help from the National Association of Manufacturers, the survey will be one of the first of its kind done on a local level, she added.