Union works with state to help laid-off educators find jobs

Laid off from an education job? Education Minnesota is working with the state's Dislocated Worker Program to help you find your next job.

With the high numbers of layoffs in education, the Dislocated Worker Program is setting up a special project just for the education sector. It hopes to secure federal money to provide services specific to educators – for example, the money could be used to help pay for a laid-off teacher to get certified in a new licensure area.

If you've been laid off, or expect to be laid off, the program is focusing on three areas to help you:

Fifty WorkForce Centers around the state do intake for dislocated workers. The centers provide you with counseling, skills assessments and help looking for other jobs.
The Dislocated Worker Program is partnering with www.iseek.org (the state’s website for job searching, re-education and training) to create a website specifically for laid-off workers in the education sector – a one-stop shop for all resources that will help laid-off members. This page will link to the site when it's up.
Starting in August, the Dislocated Worker Program will hold regional meetings for laid-off education employees to provide information and guide educators to useful resources. Attendance at the meetings is crucial because if the DWP can establish a need, they can access significant federal money that our members can use to develop education job skills. Those meetings will be listed on this page as soon as they are scheduled.

Watch for news here as the program finalizes details.

July 19, 2010