The District Chronicles

Issue date: 9/27/09 Section: Politics

The program is made to ensure minorities get stimulus-created jobs.

More than 200 pre-apprenticeship positions will be available in the District of Columbia beginning Oct. 1. The jobs are funded by a portion of the $3 million Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton secured when her amendment for pre-apprenticeship programs was included in the American Recovery and Economic Act (stimulus funds).

"This funding could not be more timely following our ground breaking for the Department of Homeland Security headquarters last Wednesday," Norton said.  "A project of this unprecedented size will not only provide jobs for our residents, it will train them for jobs to come in this project and others."

Norton, who chairs the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency, which has jurisdiction over federal construction, worked to include money for pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs in the stimulus funds to ensure that women and minorities could qualify for jobs created by stimulus funds, particularly in the construction and greening industries.

After identifying 10 high unemployment areas, the General Services Administration gave preliminary notification to organizations following a full open competition for pre-apprenticeship programs in GSA's 11 regions. The District's Community Services Agency of the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO won the competition here.

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