Maine to receive $100K to accelerate COVID-19 workforce recovery
As part of a new national initiative, Maine will receive up to $100,000 in grant funding and other support to accelerate COVID-19 workforce recovery.
Maine was selected as one of the first nine states in the Workforce Innovation Network, a joint initiative of the National Governors Association and Cognizant U.S. Foundation.
The state will receive a grant to improve employment outcomes in response to the economic impacts of COVID-19, connecting job seekers to training, education, job opportunities and essential support services, according to a news release.
“There are good-paying jobs in the trades, in electrical and plumbing work, in construction and manufacturing, in health care and life sciences and in clean energy that are going unfilled,” Gov. Janet Mills said in the release. “Our economic recovery depends on our ability to connect Maine workers to those jobs.”
With the National Governors Association’s expertise, the State Workforce Board will continue its efforts to develop talent in Maine in partnership with Maine’s community colleges, the University of Maine System, adult education, career and technical centers, private employers and trade unions, she added.
The network is designed to serve as a nonpartisan learning and action collaborative for state leaders who have demonstrated strong commitments to building a resilient workforce.
In the first round of grants from the Workforce Innovation Fund, states will receive:
• Support developing a state action plan and policy recommendations to develop or scale innovations that increase employment and deliver stronger workforce outcomes;
• Up to $100,000 in grant funding to support personnel and project coordination to carry out state innovations; and
• Virtual or in-person site visits and regular coaching calls from National Governors Association staff, as well as national experts and consultants to meet individual state needs and priorities.
Grow local talent
Maine’s application included a focus on cross-system efforts to implement the state’s 10-Year Statewide Economic Development Strategy and change the experience of people who interact with the public workforce system.
The award will assist the State Workforce Board in developing an integrated implementation plan for the “Grow Local Talent” strategy. Specifically, the grant proposal seeks to help:
• Coordinate with Maine Adult Education, Maine State Library System, Maine Community College System, University of Maine System, Department of Economic and Community Development, Department of Health and Human Services and Maine’s CareerCenters to establish targeted credentials of value and better integrate delivery of workforce and essential support services focusing on the user-centered approach for connecting displaced workers to available jobs and other needed resources.
• Align public workforce programs and funding that support Maine residents to increase their skills and education into a seamless continuum of programs and supports, with a focus on career pathways for in-demand occupations.
• Work across state agencies to coordinate business marketing, outreach, and engagement efforts to streamline business access to workforce services and talent.
• Re-brand and re-market Maine’s workforce system so that it is easily accessible for Maine employers and workers.
Inclusion in the network is expected to allow Maine to strengthen partnerships across state agencies, the Maine Community College System and the University of Maine System, and further align Maine’s workforce system to meet the needs of Maine’s employers and workers, said Maine Department of Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman. Removing barriers faced by Maine people entering the workforce and connecting employers with skilled workers is a key priority, she added.
Equitable access
To receive the grants and qualify as a member of the network, states submitted proposals focused on the creation of new, unified virtual service delivery platforms, digital inclusion and skill development strategies, and equitable access to high-quality work opportunities via the adoption of new state job quality and self-sufficiency standards.
According to the Center for Workforce Research and Information, Maine’s job recovery slowed substantially in the final three months of 2020. December job gains in construction, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, professional and business services, educational services, healthcare and social assistance, and other sectors were mostly offset by a sharp decrease in the leisure and hospitality sector and public higher education.
Across all sectors there were 7.6% fewer jobs than in February 2020 with net job losses concentrated in leisure and hospitality, healthcare and social assistance, manufacturing, private educational services and state and local governments.
The trends underscore the importance of breaking down traditional silos in training and service delivery and working collaboratively to advance an equitable and inclusive recovery, particularly for workers in sectors most negatively affected by COVID-19.
“Governors have already begun to address high unemployment with innovative policies and practices to more rapidly connect job seekers with the services and supports needed for success in the workforce,” said Kristen Titus, executive director of Cognizant U.S. Foundation. “These Workforce Innovation Fund grants will help the states in this inaugural cohort build on early innovations and expand capacity to coordinate cross-agency economic recovery efforts.”
In the coming months, the network will gather governors, states and external partners to learn more about how states are aligning their reskilling, reemployment and recovery strategies with longer-term trends and the future of work.
The network’s first cohort includes Maine, Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Hawai‘i, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada and Washington.
Maine’s hospitality and nonprofit sectors were hit hard by the pandemic. A year ago, HospitalityMaine planned to launch workforce initiatives, but those plans gave way to trying to save the industry’s hundreds of pandemic-crushed small businesses.
But manufacturing jobs have been strong. Puritan Medical Products Co., the century-old manufacturer of medical swabs based in Guilford, found itself in the center of the pandemic and one of only two companies in the world able to produce the testing swabs needed to diagnose COVID-19.
While race- and ethnicity-based economic inequality long predates the pandemic, disparities have widened over the past year, economist Jeff Fuhrer recently told a Mainebiz virtual forum.
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