When Governor Walker last week announced the statewould spend more than $4 million to spur workforce development on the north side, he said some of the money will pay for mobile response job centers to set up in zip codes where unemployment is high and access to resources is limited.
Walker said the Department of Workforce Development will run the job centers on wheels. A number of other agencies, including Employ Milwaukee, will be involved what he calls a "mobile response" to help people identify the skills they need to fill open positions.
Walker said the mobile job centers will also help remove the barriers that too often stand in the way of finding employment, including transportation and child care.
Department of Workforce Development Secretary Ray Allen said the state already has 12 to 15 of these mobile job units ready to deploy into Milwaukee neighborhoods.
DWD uses them at state prisons to help inmates get ready for life back on the outside. Allen said they won't be unlike brick and morter job centers already in place around the state.
He said, "We’ll have our employment specialists there that will help them if they need assessment, if they need resume help. If they’re just looking for a job, we’ll help them find that. So we’ll get them to the right individual, to the right organization, that can provide the service they’re entering the sight for."
The agency will get the job centers on the road as soon as it knows for sure where they’re going.
"For an example, if we did it in the Urban League, which is in the heart of the city...it has parking, it’s on bus routes, so we will have locations similar to that that will be very accessible to individuals. In addition, we will also flex the hours and go into the evening so people have additional access," he added.
Allen said they’ll have more information about when and where these services will be available later this week.
