Ever wonder what career or job suits your unique set of skills? The CareerOneStop website features a Skills Profiler that will create a list of your skills and match them to job types that need those skills. “You can use this profile to identify occupations that use your current skills, find gaps you need to fill, or polish your resume” (CareerOneStop.org’s Skills Profiler).

“Doesn’t it seem strange that we can have a shortage of skilled labor, a crumbling infrastructure, and rising unemployment? How did we get into this fix? Are we lazy? Our society has slowly redefined what it means to have a ‘good job.’ The portrayals in Hollywood and the messages from Madison Avenue have been unmistakable. ‘Work less and be happy!’ For the last thirty years we’ve been celebrating a different kind of work. We’ve aspired to other opportunities. We’ve stopped making things. We’ve convinced ourselves that ‘good jobs’ are the result of a four year degree. That’s bunk. Not all knowledge comes from college. Skill is back in demand. Steel toed boots are back in fashion. And Work Is Not The Enemy” (mikeroweworks.com).

Anyway, the point of this segment is to illustrate the need for skilled laborers in the United States in any state of economy — good or bad. These skilled laborers are typically trained through apprenticeship programs. There are many programs available for individuals interested in apprenticeship opportunities. For a list of Florida apprenticeship resources, click on the picture above or visit mikeroweworks.com’s Florida Apprenticeships.

The U.S. Department of Labor is partnering with the Departments of Energy (DOE), Commerce, and Education; the Small Business Administration; and the National Science Foundation to launch a new initiative to support the growth of an Energy Regional Innovation Cluster (E-RIC). In launching this initiative, the federal partners seek to develop a replicable and sustainable model for coordinated federal and regional efforts that foster regional innovation clusters. Regional innovation clusters are geographic concentrations of firms and industries that do business with each other and have common needs for workers, technology, and infrastructure. Ultimately, regional clusters are an effective way to create jobs and grow the economy in different parts of the country. The Employment and Training Administration has issued Training and Employment Notice 29-09 which describes the new E-RIC and encourages the public workforce system to become partners in this multi-agency effort.