She praises Nunez for its efficiency, flexibility, adaptability Watch video
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis on Wednesday told a small group of students and facility at Nunez Community College in Chalmette that the nation and region's continuing job growth rests in part on training programs that focus on skills that are "of actual value to the employer." She also congratulated the college on the nearly $2.8 million grant that her department awarded Nunez to create a "C Street," or commercial street, of three buildings that will provide culinary, hospitality and entrepreneurship training.
"It isn't just teaching for the sake of teaching any more, because we have a lot people who out of work who have Ph.D.s and have four-year college degrees," she said, adding that four-year universities are needed, but simply aren't for everybody. "There are many people also who are not prepared to go that route, nor can they do it financially.
"Community colleges do it efficiently, they're adaptable, they're flexible and they can bring on, in my opinion, faculty directly from business. And I understand that this campus, Nunez, has done that."
Earlier in the day, she attended a roundtable discussion at Xavier University where economy and workforce issues were discussed.
Her last visit to New Orleans was in July 2011, when she touted the "Strong Cities, Strong Communities" program that provides federal assistance to help local governments develop and execute economic strategies.
The funds for Nunez will help the college create an emphasis on business, restaurant and tourism management, as well as general entrepreneurship. The college has received about a third of the $2.8 million, and during the next two years will receive two payments of roughly $900,000.
"This grant just didn't come about by surprise, you had to compete for it, so the money that you're getting, close to $3 million, is about your competitiveness," Solis told the small crowd.
Nunez must have the new program up and running by August 2013, so that the incoming class can participate. Nunez expects to bring in about 50 students for the program in the fall of 2013. Nunez currently has a student body of about 2,300.
The grant, though the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College to Career Training program, is part of about $17.5 million that the U.S. Department of Labor announced last month to Louisiana community colleges, and $500 million given nationally to nearly 300 community colleges and universities throughout the nation for job training.
The grants are targeted to benefit workers who are laid off because of trade adjustments. The initiative focuses on community colleges and other programs where training can be completed in two years or less and prepare students for higher wage and skill occupations. Often, the grants focus on advanced manufacturing, transportation and health care, as well as science, technology, engineering and math occupations.
On Oct. 5, the Labor Department announced the nation's September employment statistics, noting that the labor market added 114,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in September, while the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent, its lowest level since January 2009. "The significant drop in the jobless rate was driven by people going back to work, not leaving the labor force," Solis said.
The overall jobless rate has fallen by 1.2 percent in the past year and Solis stated this month that "preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that we've now added nearly 5.2 million private sector jobs over 31 straight months of job growth." She attributed the economy's growth, in part, to investments in job training. Her statements come during a presidential campaign where the economy is front and center.
The "C Street" plan, an entrepreneurial space that will attempt to foster "out-of-the-box idea development," is a collaborative space where students can throw ideas off one another, said Christian Lagarde, Nunez's program chairman for business and office careers, who is overseeing the grant.
Nunez Community College "C Street" plan The hospitality space will be complete with a "hotel simulation model," which will include a hotel-like front desk with a check-in computer system, a hotel lobby and potentially even a mock guest room. The culinary space will have a commercial demonstration kitchen and a functioning dining room that will provide student and facility discounts but also will serve as a restaurant for people in the community, Lagarde said.
Additionally, the grant will help set up programs with local four-year colleges so the entire Nunez business administration, tourism and entrepreneurship credits can be transferred to those four-year institutions for students wishing to complete degrees there.
In Louisiana, about $14.7 million was given to a consortium of colleges to develop information technology programs. The colleges that will receive portions of that funding are Bossier Parish Community College, Delgado Community College, Northeast Louisiana Technical College, South Louisiana Community College, Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Meridian Community College, Mississippi Delta Community College, Northeast Mississippi Community College and Pearl River Community College.
When Solis left Nunez, she was on her way to San Francisco to speak at another institution that received a similar grant.