Forum, SLATE to Connect Workers, Employers
Date Posted: July 14, 2015
Posted In: News, Organizations, Workforce,
by Tom Finan, Executive Director, Construction Forum STL
As of Monday, the nine of the 13 members of the second cohort of the Building Union Diversity (BUD) program had found employment, some in the construction industry and others in shop situations.
“In an effort to adhere to President Obama’s edict not to fund training programs for the sake of training, BUD is steadfast in its commitment to ensure that the vast majority of our grads are employed long before our partners, including SLATE begin discussing starting a new round,” Dr. John Gaal, director of training and workforce development for the Carpenters District Council, said.
Also on Monday, representatives of the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment, which partners with the construction unions on the BUD program, and representatives of Construction Forum STL agreed to begin working together to facilitate the efforts of construction employers and job seekers. Earl Strauther, SLATE project manager and Stacey Fowler, SLATE adults services manager, special projects, met with Joe Blanner, Forum president and Tom Finan, Forum executive director.
SLATE recently premiered St. Louis Builds www.STLBuilds.com, an interactive website which allows construction job seekers to register their capabilities and construction employers to search through the database of candidates. Construction Forum offers free employment openings listings on ConstructForSTL.org. Each week the listings and their related newsletter list between 40 and 70 open positions.
Initially the Forum will place the STLBuilds link within its website employment area and place a link in the weekly employment openings newsletter, which is sent to 12,000 email addresses each week. SLATE will list the Forum employment listings as a resource on its site. Ultimately, the two organizations hope to work, with the restrictions placed on SLATE as a government agency, to create a seamless exchange that connects employers and job seekers in St. Louis construction.
“The Forum’s primary mission is to bring people together and build relationships, to make St. Louis a better place to live and build,” said Blanner. “I can think of no better way to do this than by promoting the connection between construction employers and potential employees.”
Strauther noted that the STLBuilds offerings, and the services offered by SLATE extend beyond the construction trades to include engineers, project managers and other construction industry employees. He said that SLATE job candidates come not just from the City of St. Louis but from a wide radius in the St. Louis region, both in Missouri and in Illinois.