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Photograph by Jacquelyn Ramseyer
Mike Curran has been the director of NOVA, a job-training consortium, for the past 15 years.
On the Job
By Jana Seshadri
While turbulent and uncertain economic conditions have made it almost impossible for public and private organizations to receive funding, Sunnyvale-based NOVA has received grants not just once, but twice last year.
In November 2001, Gov. Gray Davis awarded NOVA a job-training grant of $38.9 million to provide employment and training services to dislocated workers in Silicon Valley. And last month the United States Department of Labor awarded the H-1B Technical Skill Training Grant of almost $3 million to the NOVA Workforce Board to provide high-level training for jobs in occupations where skill shortages exist.
The unemployment rate in Santa Clara Valley climbed from a little more than 1 percent at the beginning of last year to almost 6.5 percent at year's end. Sunnyvale's rate of unemployment usually comes in about 75 percent of the SC Valley rate--about 5.5 percent at year-end. According to news reports, more than 1 million people in California are unemployed. The events of Sept. 11 only made the situation worse.
"It's been a different year," NOVA Director Mike Curran said. "Our economy went up at Internet speed and declined at Internet speed."
Since workforce issues are spurred by economic swings, NOVA had its job cut out for it. It's a challenge to find ways to train unemployed workers for industries that are currently hiring, like healthcare, security companies and public safety departments, Curran said.
The city of Sunnyvale formed NOVA, short for North Valley, to help people in the work force enhance their skills to retain their jobs or stay competitive in the job market, learn new skills to find a new job or make a career change. Sunnyvale also took on complete liability for and administers NOVA on behalf of a seven-city consortium of Cupertino, Los Altos, Milpitas, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.
"We wouldn't exist if the city of Sunnyvale didn't make it possible," Curran said.
"It was a bold thing for Sunnyvale to do years ago, understanding fully well what was involved," said Clare Phillips, chairwoman of the board for NOVA.
But the city of Sunnyvale does not influence NOVA's decisions or direction in any way, Phillips said. According to Phillips, NOVA is run as an independent organization, which is what makes it strong. Other cities and businesses show their support by buying services from NOVA for their employees.
When companies need to fill positions, they contact NOVA for recommendations. Invax Technologies, a manufacturing company in Sunnyvale, makes electrostatic chucks, which are used by semiconductor companies to hold the wafers together. Suzi Khan, director of operations of Invax Technologies, said the NOVA program graduates that they've hired have been quite good.
"I think it's a great organization," Khan said.
NOVA caters to about half a million people, who either live or work in any one of the seven cities in the consortium. After the initial membership process, a skills-assessment reveals whether a person needs individualized training and more classes first, or the services of a counselor right away to put that person on a career track. Curran said the more technical skills a person has the more productive that person will be, increasing his or her chances of keeping or finding a job.
According to Curran, the best time for training is when times are slow. NOVA's Professional Effectiveness Program reaffirms skills like resume writing, effective communication, working well within a team, professional responsibilities and critical thinking. Cities like Sunnyvale and Palo Alto have bought this service from NOVA for their staff to go through.
"We offer very customized training," Curran said. "We offer what's best for the individual."
Linda Moore said she was working in a very small publishing company for several years when she lost her job. After completing the initial membership process, Moore, 57, started the NOVA-recommended classes on Jan. 15, 2001, while working part time. By attending close to 10 computer classes, Moore was able to qualify herself once again for a totally new job market.
"If it wasn't for NOVA sending me to all the classes, even though I had the knowledge, I couldn't have applied any of it in the current job market," Moore said.
Photograph by Jacquelyn Ramseyer
Bill Bass (left) and Gary Kolegraff look up job information in the Career Connection offices of NOVA. Bass was laid off from United Defense last April, and Kolegraff was laid off from Motorola in July.
On July 2, 2001, Moore started working as an Attendance Technician for the Sunnyvale School District and has 10 schools to take care of.
"NOVA has been very, very supportive," Moore said.
Moore said she would continue to use NOVA's services for another two years.
NOVA works in partnership with the Employment Development Department and together they run the very popular "ProMatch" program, a networking service. With membership restricted to around 200, there's a constant waiting list. The five-month program enables an individual to use the agency's facilities like computers, facsimile machines, telephones and "Hot Jobs" listings to look for employment. The participant must give 14 hours a month volunteering for ProMatch. ProMatch holds a general meeting at the Sunnyvale council chambers every Thursday morning from 9 a.m. to noon, which starts off with success stories and provides networking opportunities for all its members.
Another program, which will utilize $7.2 million of Gov. Davis' grant money, is the Skills-Testing-Assessment-Reemployment or STAR program, which is engineered and modeled after Sunnyvale's one-stop shop method of service. The STAR program, which was created in 1989, is a partnership between the state of California and Silicon Valley. Through this program, NOVA continues a renewed effort on figuring out how to get people back to work. The grant funds will be used to provide customized retraining and placement activities to individuals laid off from companies.
The most recent H-1B Technical Skill Training Grant will be available to assist 425 people, according to Grant Supervisor Heidi Anderson.
"The H-1B program is probably the best training resource," Curran said.
According to Curran, the program has two focused objectives--to create opportunities for people and to make very specific strategies for individuals.
According to Andreson, federal requirements stipulate that NOVA enter into partnerships with local agencies and in order to accomplish the H-1B grant program objectives, NOVA has gone into a partnership with San Jose State University.
Phillips said the NOVA board foresaw the problem with the shortage of skills when companies were starting to recruit from overseas and acted proactively.
"The board is always looking for ways to work outside the limited parameters," Phillips said. Currently the employee-relations manager at Advanced Micro Devices in Sunnyvale, Phillips said the NOVA Board has always worked with vision and insight to foresee problems and take an aggressive approach to solve them. Phillips said NOVA board members are astute business people who work with vision and try to put good business practices in partnership with Sunnyvale.
Earlier in 2001 the 33-member board came up with seven strategic initiatives as guidelines for their future missions--adult workforce development, business community, funding development, performance accountability, youth workforce development, legislative/policy impact and board development. The strategies cover all workforce-related issues, such as developing skills and opportunities for working people of all ages, maintaining and enhancing relationships with business communities, ensuring accountability of the workforce, working on funding opportunities and ensuring efficacy of the board.
"The NOVA board is working on 'The voice of the customer' right now," Phillips said. By interviewing and talking with businesses and individual clients independently, she said NOVA would be able to find out exactly what they want from each other. The process would ensure NOVA has the appropriate future programs and training classes and could better tailor them to suit their clients' needs.
"The board's responsibility is to figure out what needs to be done and the city figures out how to do it," Curran said.
Despite the annual state fund of $1.5 million, board members are constantly working on ways of acquiring additional funding to better help the community.
"We want to serve everyone, as much as possible," said Sally Personett, marketing and special projects division of NOVA.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
