Training Agency Seeks to Help Latino Firms

In an effort to boost the competitiveness of Latino-owned businesses, California’s training agency will launch an outreach campaign to encourage Latino business owners to offer state-funded training to their workers.

The goal is to help California companies hold their own against out-of-state competitors.

The California Employment Training Panel will make more than $85 million in job-training funds available to employers this year. Many of the state’s largest companies already have taken advantage of the program, which was launched in 1982, said Charles Lundberg, marketing director for the program.

But Latino small-business owners--a rapidly growing segment of the economy--have yet to sign on in large numbers, he and others said.

The employment training panel will pay the Los Angeles-based Latin Business Assn. $250,000 to market the program to Latino business owners. The training offered will range from computer skills to the latest manufacturing processes.

Lundberg and others noted that although many Latinos work for large firms, growing numbers are entering the work force through small companies.

“We are the training ground for the Latino work force in California,” said Ruth Lopez-Williams, a small-business owner and chairwoman of the LBA. “We have a real opportunity to make a difference in the economic landscape of California.”