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Projects and Initiatives

JOBS FOR AMERICA'S GRADUATES (JAG) Program

Jobs for America's Graduates, or JAG, is a school-to-career program implemented in 700 high schools, alternative schools, community colleges, and middle schools across the country and United Kingdom. JAG's mission is to keep young people in school through graduation and provide work-based learning experiences that will lead to career advancement opportunities or to enroll in a postsecondary institution that leads to a rewarding career.

WorkOne and Tecumseh Area Partnership, Inc. launched the JAG program this fall at Lafayette Jeff and Peru High Schools’. JAG has a long and successful track record of helping students graduate from high school and achieve career goals through a structured internship and classroom curriculum. Thirty-seven real-life core competences are targeted with a high level of student accountability. A unique element of the JAG Program is the inclusion of 12 months of post-graduation mentor follow-up services that increase the likelihood of the graduate continuing their education and/or entering the workforce in a quality job leading to a career. Post-graduate services will be provided by the JAG teachers and program manager. To view the 37 core competencies, click here.

AGING WORKER INITIATIVE (AWI)

The Aging Worker Initiative (AWI) is a unique program recently developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. A $1M grant awarded to Tecumseh Area Partnership, Inc. is one of only 10 national awards.

The goal of West Central Indiana Region 4’s three-year project is to serve job seekers 55 years and older through training and related support services that result in employment and advancement opportunities in the region’s high-growth, high demand occupations. Staff members specifically trained in serving mature and older workers provide specialized services through Career Transition Hubs within the region’s two WorkOne Centers.

To learn more about this initiative, click here.

REACH (Regional Employment & Assessment Center for Hiring)

Two REACH Centers are open in this region. The first, established in January 2006 is in Lafayette and the second, in Kokomo opened its doors in January 2008. REACH provides enhanced screening and assessment services to strategic partners beginning with the region's manufacturing industry cluster employers.

Services include:

WorkKeys job task analysis and assessment;
customized screening and assessment;
use of the Smart Application;
access to AccuVision Workforce Readiness System;
access to AccuVision Workplace Success Skills System;
company showcases;
brokered background and reference checking;
employer seminars;
pre-referral 'finishing school' for job seekers;
Business & Professional Exhange - a networking group for white-collar professionals.

STRATEGIC SKILLS INITIATIVE UPDATE

The 160- hour advanced manufacturing course known as SKILL-MAP has begun at Ivy Tech Community College, and the first cohort of approximately 60 students - all incumbent workers from Caterpillar - have been enrolled in this program. Instruction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2007.

WIRED

Region officials have begun working on their implementation plan, which seeks to integrate workforce, enconomic development and education to support "high performance production". This concept is based on the sense that the economic future of North Central Indiana will be driven by the ability to innovate and produce high value products. To do this, the region intends to strengthen entrepreneurship networks, launch a next generation of cluster initiatives, leverage talents of older workers, create a process of stronger civic engagement, and invest in promising innovations to align their resources. Officials also convened their first in a series of quarterly workshops in Kokomo in February. Discussion centered on three critical dimensions: how to establish regional principles of collaboration, how to sustain their opportunity fund, and how to make the planned regional forums powerful learning experiences.

Site Last Updated: 03/10/2010