Job Skills Program Agreement Approved

Supervisors approved an agreement Tuesday that will soon give the county control of a $13.8-million job-training and placement program now operated by a private, nonprofit organization.

Starting at the end of the month, the county will assume partial control of the program run by the Job Training Policy Council, which trained nearly 1,400 low-income or unemployed adults in Ventura County in the last fiscal year. The county will handle all responsibilities for the Council beginning the first week of December, when about 70 JTPC employees join the county’s work force.

“The idea is to link job training with other county programs that help people become more independent and to help local businesses get trained workers,” said Ron Komers, the county’s personnel director. “This enables us to integrate a wide variety of services, and it should be an efficient way to help both the public and businesses.”

Komers said about half a dozen people employed by the council will lose their jobs in the next few months as a result of the transition. The county’s Personnel Department will run the program through its newly created Workforce Development Division.

Komers said additional employees may have to be laid off as the job training program’s budget continues to shrink. The federal government has already decided to eliminate funding for the summer youth employment program.