TMCnet News
Bush budget for 2007 would impact one-stop career-services centers(Newsday (Melville, NY) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Mar. 19--When Alex Hurtado was laid off four months ago, his job-search followed a familiar script. He returned to Hempstead Works, a federally funded career-services center in Hempstead Village that offers free career counseling, fax and copier services and access to the Internet. Hurtado had last used the one-stop service's airy fourth-floor office in 2004 to find a job in the insurance industry. He searched listings on the Web and posted his resume and, in three months, found work. But almost two years later, he was laid off from the support staff -- just before Thanksgiving. And Hurtado, 36, a resident of Hempstead, headed back to the center. "Without this program I'm sure it would be more difficult to find a job," he said. Job hunting at such federally funded centers could become more difficult, some employment experts and legislators believe, if President George W. Bush's proposed budget for fiscal year 2007 is approved. That budget, which the president unveiled last month, calls for a career-training program that shifts the career-training emphasis away from one-stop career centers, like the one in Hempstead, toward a voucher system called Career Advancement Accounts. Under that plan, unemployed workers would receive vouchers worth $3,000 that they could use for private career service agencies -- services they once received at the one-stop centers. The vouchers, which could be renewed for a second year, would be aimed at new workers, laid-off workers or those who need skill upgrades, according to the U.S. Labor Department. The president's budget calls for $3.4 billion for the new individual accounts. By contrast, funding for the one-stop centers would plummet from $850 million to $40 million. The Labor Department estimates that the new initiative would offer training opportunities to 800,000 workers a year, tripling the numbers helped annually under the current system. But the program is a seismic shift from when one-stop career centers were created. The Workforce Investment Act, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1998, aimed to streamline the job search process by including a variety of services for the underemployed under one roof. It replaced the Job Training Partnership Act, which focused on disadvantaged young adults and others who faced employment barriers. New York State has 33 one-stop service areas, which are run by municipalities. In Nassau, the Town of Hempstead's Department of Occupational Resources operates the Hempstead Works location and a site in Long Beach. Oyster Bay's Division of Employment Services operates centers in Massapequa and Hicksville that serve the Towns of Oyster Bay, North Hempstead and the City of Glen Cove. More than 300 people a week use the Hempstead Works program and about 150 seek out career services at the Massapequa center, program officials said. Suffolk County has one center, in Hauppauge, which serves about 10,000 people a year. The Bush administration contends the program is bureaucracy-laden: Officials have said that 75 percent of the Workforce Investment Act funding supports bureaucracy, with only 25 percent directly aiding the unemployed. "The Career Advancement Accounts flip that equation," said Emily Stover DeRocco, assistant secretary of labor for employment and training. "This is an opportunity for all of us to make sure the service delivery system really puts the resources where they belong: In the hands of the workers." Critics, including Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), have denounced the proposed overhaul. "These cuts will deal a cruel blow to unemployed workers struggling to get back on their feet," she said in a recent statement. "The Workforce Investment Act provides job training to workers who need it most, and we cannot turn our backs on them." The National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group, takes the position that the proposal would work against, not for, the unemployed. "Career Advancement Accounts will leave vulnerable workers on their own in a self-service system, making critical training and career choices without guidance," the group said in a statement. About 1.8 million workers lost their jobs in layoffs in 2005, the group said. And finding new work is becoming increasingly difficult because of a competitive business environment and rapid economic changes, the group said. Meanwhile, unemployment has declined in the last year: It dropped to 4.8 percent in February, down from 5.4 percent a year earlier, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report. New York State's Workforce Boards, which distribute federal funds to the centers, would face at least a 15 percent cut under the Bush plan, to a total of $123.6 million, down from $145.4 million, according to the New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals in Albany. That's on top of an expected 24 percent cut in the programs' fiscal year 2006, which begins July 1. "The cuts they are facing as of July 1 are the largest in memory," said John Twomey, the association's executive director. The anticipated fiscal year 2006 cuts have already prompted belt-tightening at the centers. For example, the Oyster Bay Consortium Workforce Investment Board closed its Mineola location last summer, and the New York Department of Labor began sharing space with the program's Hicksville location, said Eugene Faber, the director of the Oyster Bay programs. In addition, staff who retire or resign aren't being replaced. He described the Bush plan as potentially devastating to the local programs. Carol Golebiewski of Farmingdale said the current system has been valuable for her. She went to the Town of Oyster Bay one-stop center in Massapequa after she left a printing company in September because it planned to eliminate her bookkeeping job. "Even I didn't know what I needed" in terms of job skills, said Golebiewski, who said she is in her 40s. A counselor at the center recommended she attend Hunter Business School in Levittown for computer training. She enrolled, and the Oyster Bay career program is now paying for her five-month course in PowerPoint, Excel and other computer programs. "I wasn't savvy in any of these," said Golebiewski, who graduates this month. But now, she said, "I'm going to know more than the others I work with." Irma Encarnacion, 60, of Massapequa, who also is due to graduate from Hunter in May, said the counselors' role at the Massapequa center has been key. Encarnacion was laid off from a debt-collection job after four years. "I was depressed and wasn't motivated to get back to work because of my age," she said. But the counselors "encourage us. They teach us to use our age as an asset." Gail Paraninfo, a Workforce training coordinator for the Oyster Bay programs, said the programs pride themselves on assessing their clients' needs. "This is structured," she said. "We have experienced people work with them. It's very intensive. "You wouldn't have that if people were just given a voucher and went out to find something on their own." Elaine Chao, U.S. secretary of labor, said the change would allow more workers access to federal career-training dollars. "Workers need to be provided with as many choices as possible to gain the right skills and secure the best career opportunities," she said. Faber, the Oyster Bay director, is hopeful that the centers will endure and continue to play a key role in federal job training. After all, he said, Congress turned down a similar Bush proposal two years ago to replace the Workforce Investment programs. "I think they will fight for it and make sure it's appropriately funded," he said. At Hempstead Works, Hurtado said the Bush plan's $3,000 voucher, though enticing, is no substitute for the career centers. "If they just gave me money without somebody guiding me to the right people, I'd be like a blind person with a pocketful of cash," he said. |