There were 3 GO training program graduations in CY16:

GO CNA – 8 participants graduated on April 20, 2016

GO Driver 5 – 8 participants graduated on October 20, 2016

GO Driver 4 – 7 participants graduated on June 10, 2016  

GO CNA recruited low-income City residents and prepared them for a career as a CNA. 6 of the 8 people who graduated from the program obtained employment or are currently going through the onboarding process with UVA as a result of the GO CNA training.

GO Driver Class A recruited low-income City residents and trained them to receive their Class A commercial driver's license. Of the 7 of the program graduates, 4 obtained employment as a result of the Driver training.

GO Driver (4) recruited low-income City residents and trained them to be Transit Bus Operators with Charlottesville Area Transit and Charlottesville City Schools Pupil Transportation. All 7 of the participants that graduated obtained employment as a result of the GO Driver program.

The GO training programs are jobs driven, meaning that there must be an employer partner (or multiple employer partners with a need for employees with similar skill sets) with a significant number of vacancies (8+) for a GO training program to be developed or offered.  In 2016, less programs were offered due to the fact that our employer partners had previously hired numerous GO program graduates during CY15.  It should be noted that the GO Driver 3 graduation was held on December 17, 2015 and was scheduled to end prior to the holidays and the new year at the request of our employer partners.  This program could have easily been scheduled to end in early 2016 and would have shifted 7 program graduates from CY15 to CY16.

Another contributing factor to the lower number of GO programs during CY16 was the fact that the local unemployment rate continued to drop from the previous years.  The local unemployment rate averaged 3.35% during CY16 compared to the Virginia unemployment rate which averaged 4.05% and the national unemployment rate which averaged 4.85%.   It should be noted that 4% unemployment is considered to be full employment meaning that all who are able and willing to work are working. 

Although there were fewer GO programs offered during CY16, OED still served numerous employers and job seekers by organizing and hosting the following job fairs and customized hiring events:

 April 30, 2016 – Re-entry Resource Fair

May  11, 2016 – Charlottesville Community Job Fair

May 26, 2016 – Adams and Garth Hiring Event

September 8, 2016 – Ting Hiring Event

September 16, 2016 – 5^th Street Station Hiring Event

September 23, 2016 – TomTom Founder’s Festival Registration Sponsor (OED collected resumes from registrants and made connections to local employers)