The much anticipated first cohort of the Platform to Employment (P2E) program graduated on Thursday, February 11. Twenty-one long-term unemployed individuals completed the five-week preparatory course — a boot camp offered at no cost to participants — covering skills assessment, career-readiness workshops, job coaching, job placement support and subsidized wages for employers.
These graduates will get further assistance from P2E finding open positions with local employers.
P2E is an innovative, nationally recognized program that helps individuals who have been unemployed for at least 27 weeks return to work and employers build a strong workforce. SDWP is partnering with The WorkPlace, Connecticut’s regional Workforce Development Board, to bring P2E to San Diego and Imperial counties.
For employers, P2E gives businesses a risk-free opportunity to evaluate and consider hiring participants during an eight-week work experience program; P2E subsidizes the wages of the job candidate for up to eight weeks. The work experience becomes an extended interview where there is no risk to the employer and participants are given an opportunity to demonstrate their skills. The expectation is that if the company is satisfied with the candidate’s performance, a full-time job will be offered.
Applications are open through March 11 for the next cohort in North County San Diego starting April 11. To be eligible for the program, participants must:
- be terminated or laid off (“Dislocated Worker”);
- be unemployed for a minimum of 27 weeks (the state’s definition of “long-term unemployed”);
- have exhausted unemployment compensation, or have been employed for a long enough duration to demonstrate to AJCC staff attachment to the workforce, but are not eligible for unemployment compensation due to insufficient earnings or having performed services for an employer not covered under the state’s unemployment compensation law; and
- be unlikely to return to a previous industry or occupation.
Future sessions are planned for Imperial County (start date July 11) and south metro San Diego (start date January 9, 2017). For more information, visit workforce.org/platform-employment.