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United Way of SWVA to open workforce hub
The United Way of Southwest Virginia plans to convert an 87,000-square-foot former Kmart in Abingdon into a workforce development hub, an estimated $23 million project, the United Way chapter, Food City and town of Abingdon announced Friday, May 19. Construction is set to begin in July, and UWSWVA expects to open the building in July […]
Executive insights
Leaders from Virginia’s maritime sector share their thoughts about building a workforce pipeline in Virginia, the growth of offshore wind and how climate change impacts the industry. JUDY BARRETT Virginia Maritime Association board president; TowneBank private banking officer; Norfolk VB: As president of VMA’s board, what’s your main priority this year? Barrett: My main priority [...]
Va. launching semiconductor workforce initiative
The commonwealth is launching a Virginia Alliance for Semiconductor Technology to foster a semiconductor industry workforce, funding its establishment with a $3.3 million Growth and Opportunity for Virginia (GO Virginia) grant. Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the initiative Friday. In March, GO Virginia announced the $3.3 million grant to the program, then called the Virginia Nanotechnology [&hellip[...]
Innovation, capital key to rural growth, Barkin and Warner say
There’s hope for economic growth in rural areas despite their challenges, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President and CEO Tom Barkin and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said Wednesday during the Fed’s 2023 Investing in Rural America conference in Roanoke. Rural areas could overcome economic development challenges, particularly housing shortages and lack of broadband access, with innovation, [...]
Take a load off
One thing Brian Dail noticed as he spent a day and a half in February 2020 participating in step van manufacturer Morgan Olson’s new hire training in Loudon, Tennessee, was the physical strain. After the first hour, he told his colleagues, “‘Gosh, I’m not used to being on my feet. I’m ready to sit down.’” […]
New VCCS chancellor set to start April 1
The Virginia State Board for Community Colleges on Wednesday announced that it hired David Doré to lead the state’s 23 community colleges. Doré currently serves as president of campuses and executive vice chancellor for student experience and workforce development at Tucson, Arizona-based Pima Community College, where more than 30,000 students are enrolled. He replaces Sharon […]
MGCC workforce center to offer trades training
The Mountain Gateway Community College Real Estate Foundation will renovate a downtown Buena Vista building into the Wilson Workforce Development Center, likely starting early this year. It’s named for Buena Vista philanthropist Joe Wilson, who purchased the 8,750-square-foot former car dealership at 2019 Forest Ave. for $370,000 and sold it to the foundation for $270,000. […]
Crowded out
Election years are not the time to make waves in Virginia’s legislature, says Greg Habeeb, a former Roanoke delegate who now advises clients pursuing legislation in the General Assembly. Big changes — the kind the state saw during the Democrats’ two years of full legislative control in 2020 and 2021 — are expected to be […]
AWS teaches cloud skills in Arlington
Christie Bibbs already works in the tech industry as a systems engineer, but she wanted to add cloud computing tools to her abilities. Through the Black Women in Tech Facebook group, Bibbs learned about Amazon Web Services Inc.’s new Arlington-based Skills Center and signed up for a three-part cloud practitioner course. During the free, in-person […]
SWVA child care initiative receives $1.24M grant
The New River/Mount Rogers Workforce Development Board will receive $1.24 million in grant funding for Ready SWVA, a child care initiative launched by United Way of Southwest Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Monday. The United Way chapter launched Ready SWVA in December 2021 to expand access to affordable child care, strengthen the provider network and […]
Class conflicts
Makena Massarella, a 20-year-old junior at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, is well on her way to becoming part of the solution to one of the most vexing problems facing Virginia and the nation: the shortage of teachers. She wants to be an elementary school teacher, the most in-demand position out of 10 critical shortages […]
Center aims to grow manufacturing
In 2015, the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville was attracting manufacturers at a faster pace than it could handle. The IALR was providing work-ready incubation space where companies could launch their businesses while waiting to build, upgrade or occupy facilities while also helping build a pipeline of workers with the advanced manufacturing […]
