My Recruiting Blog

A new round of funding will help prepare students for San Antonio nurse jobs, as well as provide funding for other career-related initiatives.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs recently announced that she would award $6.37 million in equipment and job-training grants to nonprofit organizations and schools. The funding will be used to train more people for careers in high-demand occupations.

Two local entities will benefit from that funding. Alamo Colleges will receive $61,754 through a grant from the Alamo Community College District Foundation to support the school's distance learning licensed vocational nurse to registered nurse initiative.

In addition, Project Quest will receive $980,000 to support multiple job training programs in San Antonio, Dallas and the South Plains region. Of that funding, Project Quest will invest $180,000 in the San Antonio area.

A total of 17 colleges throughout Texas will receive more than $3.51 million in Job Building Fund grants and 10 nonprofit organizations will receive more than $2.86 million in Launchpad Funds.

Texas is using the Job Building Fund to help schools purchase equipment in order to train individuals for high-demand careers. The Launchpad Funds were awarded to support nonprofit organizations that help students fill high-paying jobs.

"We're using the Job Building Fund to help schools purchase cutting-edge equipment needed for high-demand career and technical education programs, training students for high-growth industries throughout the state in an era of rapidly increasing enrollment," Combs said. "With the Launchpad Funds, priority was given to organizations whose students are expected to graduate and find jobs paying salaries equal to or greater than the prevailing wage for high-demand occupations in the region."

Check out this recruiting video for Alamo Colleges:

Labels: San Antonio medical jobs

Atlanta manufacturing jobs saw the second-largest yearly decrease in employment at the beginning of 2010.

Although Atlanta's January unemployment rate has not yet been released, the unemployment rate in Georgia as a whole increased from 10.3 percent to 10.4 percent, keeping it above the national rate of 9.7 percent. Atlanta had an unemployment rate of 10.1 percent during December 2009.

The Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta area had a total non-farm employment of 2,236,700 workers during January, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 2,264,800 workers during January and a 4 percent decrease from last year.

Only two industries managed to see a monthly increase in employment, including education and health services by 2,600 jobs and government by 100 jobs. The education and health services industry also was the only industry that saw a yearly increase in employment.

The industry employed 271,800 workers during January, up from 269,200 workers during December and a 1.4 percent increase from January 2009.

The construction industry took the biggest hit when compared to last year. The industry employed 90,600 workers during January, down from 94,700 workers during December and an 18 percent decrease from last year.

The manufacturing industry saw the second-largest yearly decrease in employment. The industry employed 136,800 workers during January, down from 139,200 workers during December and an 11.8 percent decrease from January 2009.

Other industries that saw an over-the-year decrease in employment include:

• trade, transportation and utilities by 3.2 percent
• information by 5.3 percent
• financial activities by 6.4 percent
• professional and business services by 5.2 percent
• leisure and hospitality by .4 percent
• other services by .1 percent
• government by 2.2 percent

Labels: Atlanta manufacturing jobs

A local nonprofit will soon offer a space for those with Phoenix tech jobs (Click here) to come together.

The nearby City of Chandler recently announced that it plans to offer $400,000 to Gangplank, a technology-oriented nonprofit. The funding will help redevelop a historic building, accounting for the first project under the South Arizona Avenue Design Guidelines.

Gangplank provides a collaborative space where hundreds of technology-oriented professionals can come together to share ideas and develop products and business models. The company is working in Chandler because it has many of the ingredients to attract people in technology.

"For good ideas to take off, they have to build off other ideas," Gangplank Co-Founder Derek Neighbors told the East Valley Tribune. "We need density. Downtown Chandler is doing everything right to set itself up for the creative class in the next 10 years or so."

The company plans to renovate a building on South Arizona Avenue across from the new City Hall. Gangplank will use the funding for exterior facade renovations and to bring the ventilation system up to code.

The funding will come from a city fund meant to help private developers restore downtown buildings. In exchange for providing the funding, the city will receive a conservation easement guaranteeing the historic aspects of the building will be preserved and maintained for 20 years.

Gangplank will invest some of its own funding to add a second story to the building and renovate the interior. The building, which dates back to 1946, was originally used by the military and later became a meat processing plant, retail suites and home to the Gospel for Life Church.

The South Arizona Avenue Design Guidelines are aimed at creating an urban, pedestrian-friendly city center with tall buildings on each side of Arizona Avenue, transitioning downward to blend into adjacent residential neighborhoods.

The guidelines help support the $10 million South Arizona Avenue Corridor Area Plan, which will narrow Arizona Avenue from six lanes to four through Dr. A.J. Chandler Park and widen sidewalks to enhance the area's landscaping.

Labels: Phoenix tech jobs

Although it has been declining under the economic downturn, the manufacturing industry remains popular, and employers must be cautious when the economy rebounds it's time to hire new employees.

Maintaining a safe and accident-free workplace is vital to the success of any manufacturing company. Another important step is to reduce employee turnover. Both of these things can be accomplished by conducting background checks on potential hires.

Here are some sample background checks to conduct when hiring a new employee in the manufacturing industry:

• Social Security number trace - This procedure, which also includes an address history search, authenticates that the Social Security number an applicant provides is associated with an individual of the same name and birth date. The Social Security number trace reveals addresses that are used to select court jurisdictions in which to check for criminal records, and also will reveal any aliases.
• Employment verifications - This verifies information on an applicant's resume, including dates of employment, starting and ending positions and salaries, reason for termination, and eligibility for rehire. It also may include interviews with former supervisors.
• County criminal record search - This consists of an on-site manual search for the superior, upper, lower and municipal court records available in each county. These records will indicate whether or not a candidate has had a felony, misdemeanor or infraction within the last seven years or longer. The end result includes date of arrest, date of filing, charges, level of charges, disposition date, final disposition of charges and any sentence or penalty.
• National criminal record database search - These aggregate databases are comprised of millions of records from various sources, including county court houses, state departments of incarcerations, state record repositories, probation departments, townships and sex offender registries.
• Substance abuse screening - This can include physical exams and urine, hair or saliva testing for various substances.

Labels: Sample background checks