Project Skilling Up
Project Skilling Up, a workforce development initiative, has three core components: 1) outreach and recruitment activities to individuals in communities adversely impacted by the downturn in the tobacco industry; 2) skills assessment and short-term occupational skills training with financial assistance to students to meet their educational goals; 3) delivering targeted entrepreneurship training for new and emerging small food entrepreneurs in partnership with Small Business Center. Requesting continuation of funding for short term credentials scholarship, continued collaboration with Piedmont Food and Agricultural Processing Center to provide entrepreneurial training to new and emerging small food businesses, and delivery of a Small Food Business Conference to improve regional and local access in financial record keeping, supply chain logistics, marketing and branding, legal and tax implications. With the decline in tobacco farming and tobacco-related industries, access to education, occupational skills training, and targeted workshops/seminars are essential to economic stimulus and recovery in these counties.