CNS - Education and job training are key to moving 100,000 Angelenos into quality jobs by July 2010, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has said.

As part of the mayor’s six-strategy Economic Action Plan, the city will provide programs to train 100,000 workers for ``living wage’’ jobs, which pay $9.71 an hour with health benefits or $10.96 an hour without.

Creating jobs is “essential to the quality of life of a community. It’s essential to the tranquility and the prosperity of a community,” Villaraigosa said.

With grant funding, the city will provide training for jobs in transportation, construction, health care, hospitality and tourism, utilities, financial services and advanced manufacturing.

Villaraigosa said the city will focus on growing industries.

“Our strategy focuses on those growth sectors in order to assure that Angelenos are trained and ready for those jobs,” the mayor said. “Jobs in these sectors pay living wages, have career ladders and are not in danger of being shipped overseas.”

The mayor’s Economic Action Plan includes some strategies that the city already has in place.

Last year, the city of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles Community College District, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and United Way agreed to a regional job training strategy. Together, those entities are providing $465 million in job training, placement, recruitment and adult education programs.

Monica Garcia, president of the Los Angeles Unified School District board, emphasized the role of education.

“We want our children and our families to graduate and have options,” she said.

The other components of the mayor’s Economic Action Plan are to:

• create additional “living wage” jobs in the public sector and require recipients of city contracts to train and hire local residents;
• expand the city’s youth jobs program with the goal of getting 15,000 young people employed this summer;
• work with the Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles World Airports and the Department of Water and Power to ensure workers are making a “living wag”; and
• expand the Los Angeles Business Assistance Program to help small businesses grow and create new jobs.

Goodwill Industries President Doug Barr, who hosted the Feb. 20 news conference where the mayor unveiled his plan, said better jobs equate to better communities.

“Having a job means feeding one’s family with money that’s earned, gaining self-respect that comes from a paycheck, lowering crime by raising job skills, reducing welfare by increasing training, helping kids by hiring their parents,” Barr said. “In short, having a job means transforming lives through the power of work.”

Villaraigosa said he will announce plans in the coming weeks to address the mortgage crisis, attract more business investments and increase tourism.

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