NEG and Workforce Investment Programs

The more than 60 worksites for the federally funded National Emergency Grant (NEG) officially closed late last month and final performance reports have been turned in, according to the Governor’s Authorized Representative (GAR) Evelyn Vaitautolu Langford.

The NEG grant of $24 million was awarded to American Samoa in October 2009 to assist with temporary employment assistance thru disaster recovery, cleanup and humanitarian restoration jobs. ...

A culinary school based in American Samoa has been awarded a half a million dollar contract to provide a culinary training school, which is a project that the government hopes will ready local workforce for the hospitality industry.

American Samoa's post tsunami disaster economic recovery strategies, developed under the leadership of ASG Government Authorized Representative (GAR) and Human Resource director Vaitautolu Evelyn Langford, have captured the attention of several development organizations for their innovative approach to island development and their sensitivity to island culture - they have been featured in economic development forums from L.A. to Washington DC to Juneau, Alaska.

Twenty-eight students yesterday received their Certificate in culinary arts during the American Samoa Culinary Academy graduation ceremony for the first ever culinary school in the territory, a project that the American Samoa Government hopes will ready local workforce for the hospitality industry.

Human Resources director Evelyn Vaitautolu Langford had told Samoa News that among the training programs the government was looking at for the American Samoa National Emergency Grant (ASG-NEG) was a cook's training school to be set up here.

The Department of Human Resources is hoping for the first session of call center training to get underway at the start of the new year, while the second class for the School of Culinary Arts began two months ago.

American Samoa wants to train about 1,500 participants under the Call Center Training Facility project, which was awarded in July this year to California-based American Pacific Resources Inc. for $1.59 million, but the following month it was challenged by Honolulu-based American Samoa Services Associates Corporation (ASSAC), whose bid was $5 million...

Some 500 participants of the American Samoa National Emergency Grant (NEG) program are eligible to be employed in either the public or private sector or a non-profit group under a new NEG program called the NEG Work Experience Internship. The NEG program is administered locally by the Department of Human Resources (DHR).

GUAM welcomed 30 American Samoa workers over the weekend for a six-month construction training program under a regional workforce training partnership.

HAGÅTÑA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, May 27, 2012) – Thirty American Samoans graduated yesterday after completing three months of job skills training on Guam. The group was displaced when a 2009 tsunami caused the closure of two American Samoa tuna canning plants.

The American Samoans came to Guam to learn the construction trade, and some of them hope to land jobs here...

Articulates workforce development strategy intended to guide phase 2 of the ASNEG program and grant.