BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
At 30, Eric Murph had several strikes against him. He had served prison time for drug charges, the odd jobs he worked had taught him no skills, and his wife and two children were on welfare.
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ON THE INTERNET
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The Greater Cincinnati Career Resource NetWork lists job-training programs on its Web site. The address: http://www.work-web.com/gccrn, and NetWork's telephone number is 731-9800. |
Today, at 37, the Avondale resident has achieved journeyman status and a salary of $40,000 in one of the most respected construction trades, electrician. A well-timed hand up was the key to his success. "They just about literally held my hand and walked me through it," he said of the training program that turned him around.
Hamilton County commissioners are preparing to repeat this success 105 times with a program to train African-Americans for construction work. The board is expected to decide this week.
Pre-emptory barriers
The program could be maimed before it begins, however. It is drawing criticism from some of the very people commissioners would tap to refer trainees, leaders of the West End and Avondale community councils. The councils claim high neighborhood unemployment in spite of the robust economy.
What's more, the timing is bad to add another training agency to the list of 45 in Hamilton County. Sen. Mike DeWine's office hopes to have a job-training consolidation bill ready for Congress this week.
The chief objection of community council leaders is that commissioners have chosen a relatively inexperienced agency, COATS, over another that has a 30-year record of working with African-Americans and the construction trades, Prep Inc., based in Walnut Hills.
COATS, Construction Owners of the Tri-State, based in Sharonville, has run just one other short-term program.
Also, during a recent public meeting, Greg Sizemore of COATS and county commissioners characterized the trainee pool as undereducated, possibly on drugs and lacking basic habits such as showing up for work on time.
"You cannot approach these programs with this kind of cynicism," said Reginald Boyd of the Avondale Community Council, who has designed job-training programs.
"They're saying the reason we can't find anybody is these people are undermotivated and crack-ridden," he said. "The people at the top set the tone. I'm not sending anybody over there, because I don't think it's going to work."
Mr. Sizemore said he didn't mean to stereotype the minority community. He was trying to be realistic about how difficult recruitment can be.
Tight labor market
"These are some of the problems we've encountered," he said. "I didn't want to promise blue sky."
One training agency after another says the same thing, said County Commissioner John Dowlin, including the Department of Human Services, which has shrunk welfare cases to 5,756, the lowest in more than 20 years.
People who remain unemployed have difficult problems to overcome, say welfare experts and Mr. Dowlin.
"Here we are in a tight labor market, so if somebody wants to work, why aren't they working?" he asked.
Welfare officials call it the hard-to-serve population. Mindy Good, a spokeswoman for the county's human services department, said the department is finding that people without jobs have multiple problems: poor reading skills, substance abuse, domestic violence, a history of not getting along with people at work, learning disabilities and mental illness.
Some may be discouraged because they tried to work but weren't prepared for employers' expectations, said Beth Smith, executive director of Cincinnati Works. The private program follows up with graduates to mediate any misunderstandings with employers.
"What is a lack of motivation? Is it really a fear of rejection? Is it a bad experience in the past? Some people don't know quite how to get started," she said.
Mr. Murph, the electrician, said he didn't realize as a young man that he should start building a career. He worked at one low-skill job after another, such as security guard, and he turned to drugs for extra money.
He had liked electronics and computer-repair classes in high school. Prep steered him in a new direction.
On-the-job training
The agency offers a 12-week program of classroom training, four to six hours a day, for about $2,900 a person, said Lucy Green, executive director.
The COATS program estimate is $450,000, or nearly $4,300 per trainee. Mr. Sizemore said people will train on the job, mostly on the Bengals stadium, and attend two night classes each week to prepare for the apprenticeship entrance exam.
County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus said he became interested in COATS because the agency approached him with a proposal.
"People who want to do business with us need to make their case to us," he said. "If Prep wants to make a proposal to us, we would consider looking at them in addition to COATS."
Commissioners may authorize County Administrator David Krings to begin negotiating a contract with COATS as early as Wednesday, Mr. Bedinghaus said.
