February is the Black History Month. SLATE celebrates the holiday by providing you with some interesting links about the History of the Black History. You can also view the Black History Timeline here. To study 500 Notable African-American Biographies click here.

The list of February job fairs, recruitment events and business expos in
the St. Louis area is now available online. Our Featured Event for this month is The U.S. Census jobs testing conducted at SLATE. Click Job Fairs tab on your left for the details or call SLATE at 314/589-8000.

Accelerated Job Training

We can help you get the skills you need to get a good job or start a new career. If you are interested in career training, check out these Accelerated Job Training Programs available through Workforce & Community Development (WCD) division of our partner, St. Louis Community College. Some programs are free for qualified students. If you are a displaced worker, you may be eligible for the tuition assistance. For current program schedules, cost and registration visit: www.cbil.org/retrain.

Disability Employment Study

Washington University in St. Louis is teaming up with the Region 7 Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center to conduct a study of people with disabilities who are successfully employed.

Share your experience of finding and holding a job and you will be reimbursed for your time. You are qualified for a study if you:
> are living with a disability (mobility and/or sensory)

> have been at your current job for the last 2 years

> work at least 20 hours per week

> are employed in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa or Nebraska

> are 18 years of age or older

To learn more and to participate, visit http://www.communitychange.info/ and click on the link to your left for the ‘Employment Survey’, or download a flier in pdf format. You can email your questions to Meghan Gottlieb at gottliebm@wusm.wustl.edu. If you don't have access to a computer or prefer to complete the survey via telephone, call 314/286-1675.

Green Jobs: What are they and how can we find them?

One of the buzz words, or phrase rather, these days in workforce development circles is "green jobs".  We all see our workplaces, restaurants, banks, and other establishments we frequent jumping on the bandwagon about greening our communities and our habits.  When it comes to greening in workforce, SLATE is interested in seeing how we can work with community organizations in providing training for green jobs in a variety of industries. We want people who have little or no experience to train for green jobs, as well as work with businesses who may want to provide incumbent worker training to help "green" their company’s products. To help better define what SLATE considers "green jobs", take a look
at the following links to see what others are doing. 

http://apolloalliance.org/

http://makower.typepad.com/joel_makower/2008/03/where-are-all-t.html

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/2/19/155825/434

http://www.urbanhabitat.org/node/528

If you are currently working with a business in green jobs, we encourage you to continue.  If not, we encourage you to make those partnerships now.  Good luck with your research, planning and potential partnerships in making your community a greener place to live, work and play. 

The SLATE Missouri Career Center is an equal opportunity employer with equal opportunity programs and services. Auxiliary aids available upon request.