Web Site Links Users to Training and Jobs

A Los Angeles County economic development group has launched a Web site to link job seekers, educational programs and businesses in the metalwork, food preparation and apparel industries.

The Los Angeles County Workforce Preparation and Economic Development Collaborative serves as a matchmaker, connecting the unemployed and low-wage workers with better training in industries that are hiring, and helping businesses in those industries to find a more skilled worker base.

The Web site, maps.laworkforce.org, uses Internet mapping technology to help users find training in specific areas such as food sanitation, welding and pattern making within or near their ZIP Code. It also provides maps pinpointing the location and concentration of businesses in those three industries.

The collaborative, which is funded by the state, has conducted research on those industries to help identify the types of skills that workers lack and the resources to fill those gaps. With limited training, job seekers can then take a significant step up the wage ladder, said Linda Wong, who directs the project.

The site is part of a broader initiative launched by the collaborative to coordinate a tangle of government, nonprofit and private-sector resources for everything from job training to assistance with child care and transportation for low-income workers.

That information is all available on the group’s main Web site, la workforce.org. The idea may seem simple, but it represents a radical effort to improve communication and coordination in a complex and notoriously fragmented system.

L.A. County’s collaborative is made up of the California Workers Assistance Program AFL-CIO, the Employment Development Department, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., the county Department of Education, the Los Angeles/Orange County Community Colleges Consortium and the region’s Workforce Investment Boards

“There are a lot of good jobs out there. Don’t just wring your hands and say, ‘I’m going to become a security guard or a retail clerk,’” said Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

The Web site “does start to build some knowledge about what is out there and this is important,” he said. “People who might be interested in an industry can get an idea of who offers the training and where to go to get a job. It starts to fill in some of the blanks.”