The Executive Director Delivers New Year Message

"On behalf of everyone at the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE), I would like to express my best wishes and tell you a little more about where our organization is headed in 2013.

The core of our service is and will remain focused on helping jobseekers. In particular, the St. Louis community and the nation have seen continuing high numbers of long-term unemployed; many of these men and women are very skilled with years or decades of experience, but the ever-changing nature of the marketplace has placed them at a mid-career turning point. SLATE will continue to make special efforts to reach these customers, help them reskill as needed, and give them all possible support as they resume their valued place in the workforce. Our continuing participation in the St. Louis Bioscience Jobs Accelerator Project is one excellent example of this work.

It is predicted that 2013 will be an exciting year for economic development in downtown St. Louis. SLATE will continue to attract and work with businesses to help them expand, matching and referring jobseekers to new career opportunities. As increasing numbers of honored veterans return home, SLATE will renew its commitment to helping them translate their skills and abilities, and to Governor Nixon’s successful Show-Me Heroes initiative. Finally, we will explore the possibility of joining with a number of state Workforce Investment Boards to expand our data management capabilities – the goal being to spend less staff time on the back end and more on direct service to our customers.

As we enter 2013, the City of St. Louis Workforce Investment Board and the staff at SLATE know that many additional changes may lie in store. But through it all, we will remain devoted to shaping a more prosperous future for everyone in our local workforce and all sectors of our area’s economy".