Buddy Dyer provides update on job training program for workers impacted by COVID-19 pandemic

ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer was joined by Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo Tuesday to provide an update on a local job training program for workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dyer led a roundtable at Valencia College’s downtown campus where he shared the encouraging progress of the city’s “RISE” Employment and Training Program.

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Made possible by funding from the American Rescue Plan, the program aims to bolster the region’s workforce by offering people wrap-around services and training for new careers, particularly in those communities most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If you talk to any employer out there, including us, we all lack employees,” Mayor Dyer said.

Through a partnership with CareerSource Florida, more than 100 of the initiative’s approved training programs cover a range of “high-growth” industries, from healthcare to construction.

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“We can increase the income of indigenous communities where we are revitalizing, and we don’t have to gentrify,’ Orlando District 5 Commissioner Regina Hill said at Tuesday’s roundtable. “This is part of responsible growth.”

Eligible residents in the training program can receive up to $125 per week to cover costs like transportation, housing, and childcare.

Daniel Puello is a graduate of the program who says it changed his life.

“Now I go to work. I love my job,” Puello said. “It gave me a chance to improve myself where I can have a career and actually have a life and grow and have things.”

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The city is encouraging all Central Florida employers to connect with the RISE program to help fill their job openings.

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