CareerSource North Florida Executive Director Sheryl Rehberg.

CareerSource North Florida Executive Director Sheryl Rehberg gave a brief update and also presented a new interlocal agreement to the Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners at their May 5 meeting.

“Job postings are picking up,” said Rehberg. “We are seeing more jobs listed in our system. We are seeing more businesses engaged and using our system to recruit their employees.”

As of the end of March, Rehberg said, they have assisted 874 individuals in getting jobs.

“One-hundred-twenty-four of those individuals were moved from unemployment compensation to a job,” Rehberg noted. “We think that’s pretty good for our small, rural region. We are consistently in the top 10 workforce areas in the state in the governor’s daily job placement report. Most of the time, we’re in the top five in the daily reports. In the monthly reports we have maintained in the top 10. I think we were number three in March.”

Rehberg said there will be some changes in the workforce program once the Florida Legislative session ends. One, in particular, she said, will be a program geared toward out-of-school youth ages 16-24 who have either dropped out of high school or are lacking work skills.

“The legislation requires us to do that,” she said.

They will also be focusing on getting businesses to hire youth interns, so that they can gain real-life experiences in the workforce, hopefully at a job they desire to do or have an aptitude for. Other programs they are working on will focus on helping dislocated workers in certain industry sectors to get training and find employment, as well as develop a program to assist the disabled in finding jobs.

Additionally, Rehberg said, her office, along with six other regional boards in the state applied for an American Apprenticeship Initiative grant that will allow them to assist businesses in developing or expanding registered apprenticeship programs.

“The total amount of the application was for $5 million,” Rehberg said. “We should know by September if that is going to be funded.”

Rehberg then asked the board to approve the new interlocal agreement between Hamilton, Suwannee, Lafayette, Madison, Jefferson and Taylor counties, as well as the resolution that references the new law and keeps the six-county consortium operating for two more years. County Attorney John McCormick noted that no county funds would be provided for implementation of the program.

The board voted unanimously to approve the interlocal agreement.