2018

It’s shocking when you think about it: imagine a young person who is in the prime age range for building essential skills, learning expertise and gaining critical early work experience being completely disconnected from both work and school.

Layoff aversion helps employers avert layoffs through business process improvement projects. It is funded under Rapid Response, which provides resources to workers who have been laid off—functioning as a “sister” program of sorts by offering a proactive solution to businesses at risk of laying off workers.

San Diego’s early childhood and philanthropic worlds were rocked this month by the announcement of a generous $13.8 million donation for early childhood education to the San Diego Foundation by Guy Clum. Tucked into the list of initial grant recipients from the new fund was notice of a $150,000 gift to the San Diego Workforce Partnership to help with advocacy and research as the fund builds its grantmaking strategy.

Entering the basement of the Chula Vista Public Library’s Civic Center branch is like discovering an educational Atlantis. In this vibrant and imaginative space, students are exploring their strengths and interests through a lens of technology, engineering and science. The Innovation Station is a more than a makerspace, it’s an experience of self-discovery and intergenerational learning—which happens to be molding San Diego’s next generation of skilled workers.

Sports always made sense to me. Players and coach know the rules. Game starts. Referees call fouls, arbitrate. Playing field is level. Competitors lay their talents, preparation, strategy and teamwork on the table. Sweat. (Sometimes) blood. Winners. Losers. New opportunity to get better and compete the next day. Growing up where and how I did, I figured life was more or less similar. But I was wrong.

For over 20 years, the California Workforce Association has brought together an impromptu think tank of individuals from across the broad spectrum of workforce and economic development and education to consider “outside” points of view at Meeting of the Minds. Here’s what we learned this year.

Kerri De Jager is a Program Specialist at the San Diego Workforce Partnership. Here she tells a little bit about herself, both personally and professionally.

For young adults in San Diego County, the traditional part-time job is no longer the only entry point to the world of work.

Four years ago, Pamela Olvera visited the South County Career Center and tapped into available funding for training to pursue her passion of cooking. She used the funding for culinary school, and now owns a cafe in Point Loma called the Northside Shack.

Recently, TechHire team members Andrea Villanueva and Penelope Oseguera sat down for an interview with Jaime Falcón, formerly with HoverCam and Adventure Games. Read on for his experience hiring tech talent through TechHire, his outlook on internships and his advice to both employers and job seekers in tech.