FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 4, 2011

Contact: Brice Freeman, Communications 410-396-1910 bfreeman@oedworks.com

Local Organizations Come Together to Prepare Students for Careers in the Construction Industry Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Employment Development Provided Funding, Support for Program Participants Baltimore, Maryland (May 4, 2011) – The Mayor’s Office of Employment Development (MOED) recently partnered with Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) to offer a pre-apprenticeship training program to non-English-speaking Baltimore residents. The program prepares participants to formally train as electricians, carpenters, or plumbers. According to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, as of 2006, one in every ten private-sector jobs in Maryland was in the construction industry. Nationwide, 678,000 construction jobs are estimated to be created or saved over the next two years. MOED provided support for program participants as well as funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for the program itself, which equips people with the technical skills to be employable in construction trades by providing candidates with the personal resources necessary to complete training and utilize effective job-seeking strategies to locate and retain sustainable employment. Participants were required to be high school graduates, drug free, at least 18 years old, and permanent, legal U.S. residents. An event to celebrate 24 students’ completion of the pre-apprenticeship training was held last week at BCCC’s Maryland Center for Construction Technologies. At the ceremony, students received individual certificates of completion, an OSHA 10-hour online training card and CPR/First Aid certification. Now that their initial training is complete, “MOED will continue to support participants’ job placement efforts,” said Susan Tagliaferro of MOED’s Business Services division, where she works with pre-apprenticeship training program participants at the Eastside One-Stop Career Center. ### In fiscal year 2010, the Mayor's Office of Employment Development served more than 23,000 city residents through our Career Center Network, placed more than 2,700 individuals in jobs, facilitated nearly 17,000 computer literacy training visits at our Digital Learning Labs, provided summer work opportunities to more than 5,100 youth, assisted more than 400 businesses through our Employ Baltimore strategy, and offered information, services and referrals to more than 4,000 displaced workers. In fiscal year 2011, how can we work for you?