It’s been several months in the making, and Wednesday morning leaders from the city of Bowie and Prince George’s County gathered at the Kenhill Center — the original city hall — to cut the ribbon on a workforce training center.
The goal of the new facility is to help job seekers find employment. It comes at a time when the state of Maryland, and Prince George’s County in particular, has been hit hard by federal job losses and other blows to the job market.
“We have a computer lab that’s free and open to residents, where you can come and do job searches, work on your resume and do skills assessment,” Kay Starr, with the city of Bowie, said. “There’s also free online skills training provided through Employ Prince George’s and we also are going to offer career coaching and counseling.”
Maryland has seen more job losses due to federal cutbacks than any other state. Prince George’s County has seen its unemployment rate jump from 3.8% in August of 2024 to 4.8% this past August, which is the most up to date number on employment that exists.
“You can learn so many things from the systems that we have in Employ Prince George’s to really be able to thrive in this economy,” said state Sen. Alonzo Washington, who is also the director of strategic partnerships with Employ Prince George’s.
“The opportunities they can tap into is resume building, ensuring they have online training that will be ready for them 24 hours a day, and ensuring that they have access to our technical assistance adviser.”
Employ Prince George’s also offers 14 different certification programs. This workforce training center is the third one to open in the county. Similar facilities can be found in Largo and National Harbor.
Eventually, Washington hopes there will be centers in all 27 of the county’s municipalities.
“Have a jobs and resource lab right in their community, so it’s in walking distance of all the residents that live in their town,” Washington said. “So that they can have an opportunity.”
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