The continued development of the Kenai Peninsula when jobs open up for residents, visitors and businesses was a topic of discussion at the most recent Kenai and Soldotna Joint Chamber Luncheon.
Tim Dillon, Executive Director at the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District, was the featured speaker at the luncheon, explaining that a new website has gone live aiming to help students and individuals further their career aspirations, “There was a concern out there about jobs being lost. So, we wanted to see if we could do something to make sure that when jobs opened up on the Kenai Peninsula, that residents were trained, trained properly and would be able to get those jobs. We figured, instead of us writing a report, we needed to be able to develop a resource for our residents on the Kenai Peninsula. So, we started putting together a website. That website is going live today. The way we’ve set this up is, whether you’re in high school and you’re trying to figure out what you want to do or you’re 40-some years old and you just got laid off or you want to try something different, it identifies different kinds of jobs in a variety of different industries, average salary, what kind of certifications you need, where to get those certifications, or education or training, how much it costs, if there’s an opportunity for a scholarship or some kind of a tuition reimbursement, all the different pieces to help you make a decision for people be able to be employed here on the Kenai Peninsula.”
The website is kenaipeninsulaworkforce.org, aiming to highlight the Kenai Peninsula as a place to live and work, spotlight thriving local manufacturers, highlight resources available to businesses and manufacturers and calls to action to grow, start or transfer current operations to the Kenai Peninsula.
Dillon’s job is to connect residents with the resources they need to guarantee their success. In speaking about the website, he says, “When you go on those programs, you can click right on that program and it goes directly to that website. There’s no Googling anything or ‘oh when I get back to this, I’ll have to research this program or that scholarship’ it’s all connected, which is really part of this whole endeavor. The website is kenaipeninsulaworkforce.org. This does not replace our KPEDD.org, so we’ll have two different websites and they will also be able to get to the workforce website by going to KPEDD.org also.”
