Click on: www.operationpaycheck.com
Posted on 07/08/2002 6:41:24 AM PDT by summer
Click on: www.operationpaycheck.com
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Associated Press
Bush program trains unemployed
By Harriet Daniels
OCALA - The hope of a new job is on the horizon for Kurt Spears, who completed the training to become a commercial truck driver last week.
Spears is making a career change after 12 years as a welder. He was laid off last year.
Welding jobs were tough to come by, and Spears sought help from Ocala's One Stop Career Center, where he learned about Operation Paycheck, an initiative through the governor's office designed to assist workers affected by the terrorist attacks.
"I started looking for a job as soon as I was laid off, but there was nothing out there," he said. "And when I went to One Stop, they told me the closer it got to December that things would really slow down, and they did."
Area One Stop Career Centers and CLM Works, which oversees the Operation Paycheck program, had only one position available in Spears' specialty, metal-integrated gas welding. But the position was quickly filled, so he decided to go for retraining through Operation Paycheck.
Charlotte Hearn, One Stop Services director, said information about Operation Paycheck was disseminated to those applying for unemployment compensation. Applicants must be unemployed as a direct or indirect result of the Sept. 11 attacks and not able to find a job in their area of expertise.
"We did not feel the effects of layoffs from Sept. 11 as bad as some areas like in South Florida, but it has trickled down to this area," Hearn said.
Spears is one of 26 local people participating in Operation Paycheck, while nine others are in the process of applying. Since the program went online in October, two people in the region have completed training.
Lisa Connolly, local coordinator of Operation Paycheck, said many people are matched with other jobs.
"They just need help finding those positions," she said.
Others need help deciding what type of training best suits them.
Inquiries about Operation Paycheck have slowed in recent months because unemployment also is slowing.
In Region 10, which includes Marion, Citrus and Levy counties, 32 people have qualified for the program. By contrast, Region 12 covering Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake and Sumter counties has 878 qualified applicants, and Region 5 - Gadsden, Leon and Wakulla counties - has 161.
While applicants are being retrained for many occupations through Operation Paycheck, computer training is the most popular choice; the governor's office has identified information technology as one of the state's growth occupations.
Truck driving, medical fields and law enforcement positions also are among those identified by the state as growth occupations following Sept. 11. In the Ocala Operation Paycheck program, truck driving ranks second behind computers as a demand occupation, with five participants currently in training.
Connolly said the two people who completed their training both are now truck drivers and earning more than $10 an hour.
Spears plans to apply for long-distance driving to increase his earning potential. He comes from a family of truck drivers, so he knows the job can keep him away from home for long periods of time.
"But I can make more money that way," he said.
For Spears, another benefit of Operation Paycheck was a one-time $500 grant from the Publix Super Markets Charities. The grants are part of $1 million Publix designated to assist people in its four-state market of Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.
Operation Paycheck was used as a first step of eligibility for the Publix grant, which was dispersed through the United Way of Marion County. Twelve people in Marion County have benefited from the grants since March, when the funds became available.
Roseann Fricks, vice president of Community Solutions Initiatives for the United Way, said the program has gone well since there was a real need locally.
The United Way was given $7,500 and has $1,500 left to distribute.
For Spears, who said his parents have helped him a great deal during this time, the Publix grant enabled him to make his child support payment.
"The program really helped me, and I told others about it," he said
Leni
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