State and local agencies in Louisiana have developed a website clearinghouse to connect unemployed and underemployed oil and gas workers with jobs and training in other industries. The website AcadianaOpportunity.com was unveiled this week, according to South Louisiana Community College corporate college director Germaine Ford.
“The site is really a vehicle or tool to be able to access who needs this help and who’s looking for these unique opportunities and then we’re connecting them through a model we have called the ‘learn and earn’ model,” Ford said.
Ford says the Lafayette-based community college partners with companies to design curriculums that guarantee a job upon successful completion of a program. Examples of this guaranteed work include the scaffolding program and the seven-week truck driving class leading to a CDL or commercial driver’s license. Ford says oil and gas workers need to rethink their professions. More than 12,000 people have lost jobs due to a falloff in oil prices that started in mid-2014.
“It’s projected that the oil and gas industry should be back up possibly at the end of 2017 -- it could even be 2018. What we’re saying is we have employers right now that are looking for people and looking to grow,” Ford said.
This Acadiana Workforce Opportunities Connection, as it’s called, has been in the works for about a year, according to Ford. Signup sessions are planned for the truck driving on April 19 and scaffolding on April 25 from 3 - 5 p.m. at Acadiana Technical College, 1101 Bertrand Drive, Lafayette. He says many of these jobs are based in Lafayette, Lake Charles and Baton Rouge.
The website is a collaboration among the Lafayette Economic Development Authority, One Acadiana, Louisiana Economic Development, Louisiana Workforce Commission, South Louisiana Community College and area workforce development boards.
