Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announces a new workforce development center, slated to begin training Baltimore residents for careers in welding and CNC machining on April 27. (AFRO Photo/Roberto Alejandro)
Baltimore City will soon have a new workforce development center in the Park Heights neighborhood to prepare residents for careers in manufacturing.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced the new center on April 1; it will be called the Jane Addams Resource Corporation(JARC) of Baltimore. The mayor was joined by Jason Perkins-Cohen, director of the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development, and Regan Brewer Johnson, associate director of the Jane Addams Resource Corporation of Chicago, which will oversee the new center on the former campus of the Magna Baltimore Technical Training Academy.
“JARC Baltimore will replicate the success of the careers and manufacturing center programs that have garnered praise across our nation,” said Rawlings-Blake. “Since 2006, these programs have average 90 percent rates for completion, placement, and retention.”
The mayor said that the Jane Addams Resource Corporation’s previous success in other parts of the country was important because she wanted to make sure the city’s investments yielded real results for Baltimore residents.
The center will train individuals in computer numerical control machining and welding, Brewer Johnson said, calling them “two career paths that are currently in high demand here in the Baltimore area.” She said the careers generate entry level wages of between $13 and $14 an hour, with many of the Chicago program graduates earning closer to $20 an hour within a year of completing the program.
The center is slated to begin its training programs on April 27, and will also offer remedial education in reading and math for applicants who require it. Orientation programs are available every Wednesday at 9 a.m., for interested applicants.
“Folks can come in to 4910 Park Heights Avenue, at our facility and apply. They fill out an application, they have a basic math and reading screening at that time, and they’ll come back probably a week later or so for an interview process,” said Brewer Johnson.
ralejandro@afro.com