Workforce training is high on the list of priorities at Lexington's City Hall as Mayor Jim Gray made clear in his recent "State of the City" address.
Elodie Dickinson has been serving in the role of workforce development manager for just a few months. She said her responsibilities include connecting people needing jobs to educational institutions and other agencies that provide training. Dickinson said her office will be evaluating a new city-financed job training grant program.
“Based on what agencies we choose this year, we’ll definitely be tracking the outcomes of those agencies and what kind of employment outcomes are they having. And I think that will help us plan for the next year.”
Dickinson said$150,000 was set aside for the grant program and 21 agencies have applied with requests of more than $540,000.
“There are so many workforce development agencies in town who provide soft skills training, who provide short term certificates," she said. "So, I think that’s really my role to kind of learn about what everyone does and how to connect people. So that we have a stronger workforce, so that people stay here and want to move here.”
