Job-Training Grant to Aid Layoff Victims

Handed pink slips last fall in an increasingly competitive manufacturing market, employees of Practical Peripherals could receive some relief from a job-training grant awarded Monday.

The $460,474 grant to Ventura County is designed to help workers who will be terminated over the next six months due to cuts in the banking, retail and computer manufacturing industries.

“In targeting grants to those communities, we’re making an important investment in the local economy and the families affected by job layoff,” Gov. Pete Wilson wrote in a statement announcing the grants. “The grants will provide the laid-off workers with access to reemployment services including career counseling, resume and application preparation, job development assistance and interview techniques.”

The grant was widely praised Monday, but its effect could be negligible given Southern California’s recovering economy, analysts said.

“From what we hear, many people have been able to find employment,” said Bob Peltola, Practical Peripherals’ vice president of operations. “But for those who haven’t, this gives them a new lease on life. I think it gives them an opportunity to change their career field into something with broader opportunities.”

A maker of computer modems owned by Georgia-based Hayes Microcomputers, Practical Peripherals announced staggered layoffs of about 375 workers in September. Since November, the work force has dropped from 426 to 60. By next month, only 35 engineers, developers and administrators will remain at the Thousand Oaks facility, according to Peltola.

The company will consolidate manufacturing operations at its Norcross, Ga., headquarters.

Hayes, which acquired Practical Peripherals in 1989, has seen rough times in recent years. It filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 in late 1994, when almost 500 employees worked at the Thousand Oaks plant. Since emerging from Chapter 11 last year, profits have increased.

The job-training grant will provide an opportunity to train and redeploy displaced workers before they apply for public assistance, said county Supervisor Frank Schillo.

“This is really a terrific opportunity for Ventura County,” said Schillo, who represents Thousand Oaks. “And it ties into welfare reform. . . . With this [grant], we can hopefully work one by one with these employees and get them into something.”

The money comes from the governor’s $77.4-million discretionary fund, a provision of the federal Job Training Partnership Act, which is administered by the state’s Employment Development Department. Los Angeles County received a $400,000 grant Monday from the same fund.

Because Ventura County is one of the few areas in which durable manufacturing--the creation of electronics, cars, airplanes and the like--is growing, the job training money may not be needed, said analyst Mark Schniepp.

“Ventura County is going to be creating thousands of jobs,” said Schniepp, director of the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast project. “I don’t think these workers are in for significant hardship the way jobs are expanding in California at this time.”

But to find work, he added, workers may have to change careers or move to more bustling manufacturing centers, such as Los Angeles or the Bay Area.