By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island will use about $4 million in federal stimulus money to help prepare young people between the ages of 14-24 to join the workforce.

It is part of $17.2 million in workforce training and employment grants that will be issued with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (AARA).
The $4 million part of the package will be used to provide summer work experience, work readiness and academic enrichment programming for about 2,000 youngsters, providing a minimum wage or stipend along with the six to 18 weeks of experience and training.
High school students will get the six week program, while the older youth can stay on for 18 weeks.
To be eligible, participants must be legal residents of Rhode Island, meet income standards and encounter one or more of these barriers to success: deficiency in basic literacy; performing at one or more grade level below their age; be a school dropout; be homeless, a runaway or foster child; be pregnant or a parent; have a disability, or be a juvenile offender.
Later this week, the Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island and Workforce Solutions of Providence/Cranston plan to announce an initial request for proposals to community-based organizations, non-profit organizations, for-profit companies, public agencies and educational institutions who want to take advantage of the program.
In the RFP process, priority will be given to programs that expose youth to careers in the following growth industries: health care, construction, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, marine technology, information technology, hospitality & tourism and financial services. Also, special preference will be given to vendors that incorporate “green industries” educational components and career pathways into their programs. “Green industries” include but are not limited to solar and geothermal energy, wind-power design and environmentally friendly building materials and techniques.
Other parts of the workforce development stimulus include:
n $7.9 million to help laid-off workers find appropriate employment or job training;
n $2.1 million to help long-term unemployed Rhode Islanders re-enter the workforce;
n $1.5 million to offer re-employment services and netWORKri one-stop career services for all Rhode Islanders.
“You can't have an innovation economy without having a knowledge-based workforce,” Carcieri said at a ceremony announcing the grants Monday.
Calling the federal funding “the largest influx of money we have seen,” Carcieri said, “it positions us to make an impact on the people we've got to get back to work. This is a big, big boost right now at a time when we can really use it getting people back to work.