You may want to take this to economically depressed areas.

Our project was focused on what organizations in the Bay Area could do locally.

In terms of addressing barriers to training and jobs, there are several exciting local initiatives that can be models for additional efforts. Soem examples include

--a group of hotels in San Mateo County partnering with community colleges to teach English and other basic skills to workers onsite

--a new program by the Palo Alto and Sequoia school districts adult education programs to teach English and job readiness skills

--onsite programs at Kaiser in Santa Clara and various janitorial sites to teach vocational English

The key concept here is contextualized learning--teaching these basic skills related to actual or prospective jobs rather than in a traditional classroom setting and context.

Similarly there are programs to teach digital literacy skills in the context of job search. Google has a program to provide tablets and training for janitors so they can receive work orders and communicate by email.

The workforce board I am a member of is partnering with the Stride Center in Oakland in their program to teach entry level information communications technology (ICT) skills. Our added value is in implementing a mentoring/networking component so trainees have access to current workers willing to share their experiences.

Local businesses can get involved by hosting programs like the 4 San Mateo County hotels or partnering with high school Linked Learning programs to show high school students, particularly those at risk of dropping out, how learning is connected to getting a good job--internship opportunities would be a plus.

There is a shared interest here. Businesses need skilled workers and not just software engineers, particularly as more and more baby boomers retire from all kinds of occupations. There will be lots of winners if the general skill level increases and fewer students drop out of education--even if these steps will still leave many working in what are today low wage jobs.

Helping these workers is an additional challenge.

Steve Levy,

"a new program by the Palo Alto and Sequoia school districts adult education programs to teach English and job readiness skills"

How would this compare to the old and existing Palo Alto Adult School programs to teach English

I know several local workers who learned their English at Palo Alto Adult school. An interesting story was how the program went on-site to teach English to local hotel workers.

@ mobility

You asked two questions.

I don't know the answer to how the new adult education English language classes relate to the prior ones. The new classes as well as some of the other initiatives I mentioned are part of a Dept of Labor grant. [http://www.svallies.org click here]

I do think the strategies we identified would work across the country but it is also true that the Bay Area has more than 1.1 million jobs that pay less than $18 an hour--more than a third of all jobs and most pay under $12.

To give you an idea of what kind of jobs

--for under $12 an hour are lots of restaurant jobs but also retail, home health aides and child care workers.

--for $12 to $15 an hour are janitors, security guards and pre-school teachers

--for $15 to $18 an hour are medical assistants, nursing aides, and shipping clerks

These are median wages for 2012 and of course some workers make more and some make less.

So mobility is important in the Bay Area as well as less prosperous regions.

stephen levy.

"addressing barriers to training and jobs"

you list some of the jobs you suggest should "move up" with training?

-for under $12 an hour are lots of restaurant jobs but also retail, home health aides and child care workers.

--for $12 to $15 an hour are janitors, security guards and pre-school teachers

--for $15 to $18 an hour are medical assistants, nursing aides, and shipping clerks

Is there an ideal wage for people to aspire to, away from these jobs, or is your point that wages are low?

Mobility

The jobs listed are examples of today'a low and moderate wage jobs.

The move up jobs we examined in our project have median wages between $18 and $30 an hour. Some may then move up to jobs paying more than $30 and hour as skills and experience increase.

One example we identified in the project is particularly interesting. Some time back the Contra Costa Water District understood that many of their skilled water and waste water technicians were nearing retirement age. They approached Solano Community College and now there are 21 agency partners throughout the region training replacement workers onsite with industry faculty and covering all costs. Currently Skyline College in San Mateo County is working with local agencies to replicate this model.

These are examples of the kind of industry led training partnerships I talked about in the blog.

Some of the industries where there are move up jobs and ongoing industry partnerships are construction and health care.

Many of the $18 to $30 an hour jobs (most replacing retiring workers) are in sales and office environments, not tied to a specific industry and this makes the training challenge more difficult.

There are also move up jobs within the lower wage industries.

But not everyone can move up as the number of middle wage jobs is limited relative to the number of low and moderate wage workers AND the lower wage jobs such as in restaurants and hotels will continue to grow.

Helping the workers who remain in today's low wage occupations is one of reasons we are seeing a wave of discussions about raising the minimum wage.

I am not in a position to tell anyone what the "right" wage is but most discussions today are in the $10 to $15 an hour range with Bay Area discussions toward the higher end but increasing gradually to those levels over the next few years.

Our client committees had quite interesting discussions about the minimum wage with most saying it should be up to individual communities in the absence of state or federal changes but that a more region wide policy could be helpful in preventing cities from competing against each other on minimum wage and having a number of conflicting rules facing businesses.

So today's report of east bay communities discussing having similar minimum wages is a hopeful sign in my opinion. [Web Link click here]

In 1987 I worked at a residential landscape job for the summer. I was paid $ 14.50 an hour. The house was in Los Altos.Back then The house was worth around $250,000 -$300,000 range. Now the house is selling for around $2,500,000. Guys working landscape now get about $10 to $12 an hour.Most workers are undocumented and from Latin America.

The immigration issue should be addressed first.