News & Stories

For the past 20 years, the Library Foundation SD has supported the San Diego Public Library System become the essential resource that it is today, providing San Diegans with access to fulfilling careers, healthy finances and better social, health and economic outcomes. Here the Library Foundation SD shares how public libraries and workforce development are deeply intertwined. 

Samay Williams is a graduate of San Diego State University. After not finding a job in her field, she got in touch with Back to Work San Diego Connect2Careers. We spoke with Samay to learn about her experience navigating the workforce during the pandemic.

The construction industry is one of the largest in the world, many positions provide on the job training. Here are some of the top growing career paths in construction, energy and utilities that require a high school degree to get started.

On April eighth, the San Diego Workforce Partnership and the Burnham Center for Community Advancement hosted a Community Dialogue event featuring workforce development leaders to discuss the new book Growing Fairly: How to Build Opportunity and Equity in Workforce Development.

Dr. Matthew Doyle, Superintendent of the Vista Unified School District, discusses the importance of building career development pathways for students K-12, by helping them discover their strengths and interests, as well as how to align those interests to the demands of the global marketplace.

Melanie Hitchcock, Ph.D. is the operations manager for our client services team and the regional organizer for Southern Border Region. Melanie has been with the Workforce Partnership for five years and this month we asked her about her work and free time! 

On April 30, the San Diego Workforce Partnership, San Diego Public Library and San Diego Public Library Foundation will host a free Career Exploration Workshop open to the public.

Last month San Diego capped off one year of continuous declines in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate with a significant drop, from 4.0% in February down to 3.5%. The nominal rate was 3.4%, just half a percentage point above the lowest rate of the century (2.9% in May 2019).

Samvathna Em, who goes by Sam, was attending San Diego College of Continuing Education when he heard about the San Diego Gateway to College and Career program. This program supports immigrants, refugees and English language learners in self-sufficiency and personal empowerment. We asked Sam about his goals, experience with the program and dream job.

Dr. Danene Brown is the regional consortium chair for the San Diego and Imperial Counties community colleges, representing the career education programs at the 10 regional community colleges. Here, she tells us why workforce development is pivotal to maintaining local and regional economic growth and stability.