Workforce Development
The Maine Department of Labor is supporting the work of Governor Baldacci's Workforce Cabinet and the Maine Jobs Council to improve opportunities for workers and businesses to succeed through workforce development. This page includes information and links on Maine workforce development policy and initiatives. For more information on Maine's workforce services for jobseekers or employers, visit your local CareerCenter.
Improving Access to Higher Education
Competitive Skills Scholarship: Provides workers with a grant to help them earn a degree or certificate in certain education or training programs.
Lifelong Learning Accounts: Helps workers and employers work together to finance skill development and lifelong learning.
Prior Learning Assessment: Allows students to obtain college credit for training and skills obtained outside the classroom.
On the Job Training / Apprenticeship
Governor's Training Initiative: Provides eligible businesses with partial reimbursement of training costs for the hiring of new employees, and/or retaining or upgrading their existing work force.
Registered Apprenticeship: Allows workers to learn new skills through on-the-job training and related classroom instruction.
Pre-apprenticeship: Includes two years of customized high school academics coupled with on-the-job training during the junior and senior years.
North Star Alliance Initiative: An industry focused economic development initiative devised to drive business and create jobs in coastal Maine. The initiative includes business, R&D, education, and workforce development centered on Maine's boatbuilding, marine, and composite industries.
Maine Workforce Development Policy / Research
Policy Boards
Governor Baldacci's Workforce Cabinet Policy board comprised of seven major state departments and agencies to provide a forum in which to convene businesses, economic development agencies, educational institutions, workforce development service providers, and other community leaders to collaboratively address and improve the broad range of workforce issues facing Maine and its communities.
Maine Jobs Council: Maine's statewide workforce investment board, which oversees the implementation of workforce development programs in Maine.
Workforce Research
Trends and Implications for the Maine Workforce: Report providing a broad overview of workforce development issues and challenges.
Maine's Workforce Development System: Guide to education and training programs in Maine.
Contact
For more information contact Garret Oswald at Garret.Oswald@Maine.gov or call (207) 621-5087.
