virtual-health-care-training-heart

Back to Work: Programs are using virtual reality to train workers

An ongoing round-up of job and training opportunities from around the country
-

The number of first-time jobless claims remains high, but there was a bit of movement last week. New unemployment claims for the week ending February 6 totaled 793,000, according to the Department of Labor. Dow Jones economists had forecast the figure at 760,000. However, the new claims number is less than the previous week’s number of 812,000.

WorkingNation is always looking at stories addressing how different parts of the country are trying to get unemployed people back into the workforce.

Here is some of what we found this week:

From Alabama: Alabama Newscenter reports a jobs program in Montgomery will use virtual reality to train workers for transformer manufacturing.

From Iowa: The Gazette reports the University of Iowa is using an $8M grant to bring high-tech simulation health care training to rural areas.

From Minnesota: The Bemidji Pioneer reports the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe is doing a feasibility study for a new construction jobs program.

From Montana: KULR reports the Montana Contractors Association Education Foundation is launching a workforce development initiative with high schools in Billings.

From New Jersey: New Jersey Business reports a $3M investment will be used to prepare workers for jobs in the growing offshore wind industry.

From North Dakota: KFYR reports Bismarck State College has started training program to meet the high demand for truck drivers.

From Pennsylvania: Tribune-Review reports a free training program in Pittsburgh will teach people tech skills.

From Vermont: VermontBiz reports Norwich University has been selected to lead the Department of Defense Cyber Institute program – as part of a consortium of six schools.

February 8: Back to Work: Opportunities in cybersecurity, manufacturing, and transportation
January 25: Back to Work: Opportunities in health care and medical science
January 11: Back to Work: Hiring and training across the country, including in the manufacturing sector
December 28: Back to Work: New jobs programs designed to help members of the military
December 21: Back to Work: Initiatives boost employment in construction, health care, alternative energy
December 14: Back to Work: The path from LPN to registered nurse
December 7: Back to Work: Opportunities include trainings, apprenticeships, and work-based learning

We’ll keep looking, so check back for more stories from around the country.

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.