Pres. Obama Looks to Georgia Job Program for Help with Unemployment
A job training program created in Georgia is gaining national attention. President Barack Obama is expected to model his plan to help long-term unemployed Americans after it.
It's called the Georgia Works Program.
Caroline Garrett signed up for the program after a year of job hunting. "I was out of work for almost a year," says Garrett.
It gave her a chance to get paid to learn new skills. Garrett says as soon as the program ended she had 4 job interviews.
The Forsyth-Monroe County Chamber of Commerce is one of more than 16,000 different employers across the state to sign up for the program.
President of the Chamber, Tiffany Andrews, says "The chamber utilized it several times. We were able to work with them. We had great success."
Caroline Garret trained at the Chamber for almost 2 months before being hired as an administrative assistant. She says having the opportunity to be involved in the Georgia Works Program made landing a job easier.
Bob Thompson manages the Macon Office of the Georgia Department of Labor and says, " 59% of the people who participated in Georgia Works, completed the training... got hired somewhere by somebody."
That number caught the eye of leaders outside the state. "There's other states that are trying to emulate what we're doing," says Thompson.
Including President Barack Obama.
"It's a phenomenal program...with Georgia's other programs that they have available for workforce Georgia's becoming renowned for setting that bar for the workforce," says Andrews.
The program works by connecting participating employers with people who are actively looking for work. The hopeful jobseekers then have around 2 months to make a good impression and show off their skills.
Thompson says, "It gives the employers a chance to test drive the employee, and the employee can test drive the employer."
It's a concept Georgia's been working with for close to 10 years and now it's a force behind dropping the national unemployment rate.
