Workshop for Dislocated AllFirst Employees to Advance IT Careers

Southwest Career Center, 201 South Arlington Avenue

The Rapid Response Team of the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development is hosting a workshop on information technology (IT) careers for dislocated employees from AllFirst Bank and other local companies. (Registration for this workshop is closed.) Workshop presenters will include representatives of New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, RGII Technologies, Inc. (the 2nd largest IT consulting company in Maryland), and MetroTech (a regional workforce development initiative that supports businesses in securing needed IT and biotechnology employees through customized training of dislocated workers). Speakers will discuss career advancement, related training certification and industry trends in the IT field.

When mass layoffs occur, the Rapid Response Team assists businesses and displaced workers through the period of transition to re-employment. The Rapid Response Team’s current customers include the employees recently laid off from AllFirst Bank as well as those laid off from the Baltimore City Public School System. In addition to the IT workshop and a recent successful interview fair, support provided to dislocated workers includes workshops on career transition; job search strategies, executive resume writing, and financial management as well as tuition paid training opportunities and referrals to other re- employment services offered at the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development’s four One-Stop Career Centers.

In fiscal year 2002, MOED’s Rapid Response team developed strategies for 16 companies faced with layoffs affecting 1,700 employees. In the first eleven months of fiscal year 2003, the Rapid Response Team has assisted 24 companies in developing transition plans following mass layoffs or plant closures affecting more than 3,000 workers.