plus 2, The Government of Canada Helps Clarenville Youth Prepare for Jobs - PR-USA.net

The Government of Canada Helps Clarenville Youth Prepare for Jobs - PR-USA.net
Highly successful tenure at Troy hasn't made Blakeney yearn for shot at a big-time job - FOX News
From frat houses to practice field, London attacking Virginia job from all angles - FOX News

The Government of Canada Helps Clarenville Youth Prepare for Jobs - PR-USA.net

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:29 AM PDT

Local youth who face barriers to employment will get job preparation training and work experience through the Government of Canada's support for an employment project. The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Minister responsible for Newfoundland and Labrador, made the announcement today on behalf of the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development.

"In today's environment, it is more important than ever that youth develop the skills they need to participate and succeed in the job market," said Minister MacKay. "By supporting this project, we are helping Clarenville youth develop the skills, knowledge and work experience they need to reach their full potential."

The Ability Employment Corporation will receive $95,009 in federal Skills Link funding to support its youth employment project, which will help five youth facing employment barriers develop life and job skills to ease their transition to work or return to school.

"The Ability Employment Corporation would like to thank the Government of Canada for providing this opportunity to Clarenville's youth to acquire the skills, education and attitudes that will help them to break into the labour market and find work," said Ms. Camilla O'Shea, Chair of the Corporation's Board. "This program changes lives."

The federal government is working with the provinces and territories, community organizations and other stakeholders to provide Canadians with the training, skills and opportunities they need to get jobs and contribute to their communities.

Through the 2010 "Jobs and Growth Budget," the Government of Canada committed an additional $60 million to the Skills Link and Career Focus programs. This additional one-time investment will enable more young Canadians to gain the experience and skills they need to successfully participate in the labour market while the economy recovers.

Skills Link is part of the Government of Canada's strategy to create the best educated, most skilled and most flexible workforce in the world. The Government underscored its commitment to this strategy in Canada's Economic Action Plan. A key component of the Plan is to create more and better opportunities for Canadian workers through skills development. To learn more about Canada's Economic Action Plan, visit www.actionplan.gc.ca.

The Skills Link program is delivered by Service Canada, which provides one-stop personalized services for Government of Canada programs, services and benefits. For more information about this program, visit www.servicecanada.gc.ca, call 1 800 O-Canada or drop by your local Service Canada Centre.

This news release is available in alternative formats upon request.

BACKGROUNDER

The Ability Employment Corporation is a non-profit organization that provides career counselling and other employment services to persons with disabilities. From August 23, 2010, to March 19, 2011, the Corporation will help five youth with disabilities develop a broad range of skills and work experience. The participants will attend workshops focusing on topics such as problem solving and stress management, and get hands-on experience through job placements in the tourism and services industries.

As part of the Government of Canada's Youth Employment Strategy, the Skills Link program is one of three programs that help young Canadians, particularly those facing barriers to employment, obtain career information, develop skills, gain work experience, find good jobs and stay employed. The other two programs are Summer Work Experience and Career Focus.

Skills Link focuses on helping youth facing barriers to employment, such as single parents, Aboriginal youth, young persons with disabilities, recent immigrants, youth living in rural and remote areas, and youth who have dropped out of high school. It offers a client-centred approach based on assessing an individual's specific needs. The program supports youth in developing basic and advanced employment skills. Eligible participants between 15 and 30 years of age—who are not receiving Employment Insurance benefits—are assisted through a coordinated approach, offering longer-term supports and services that can help them find and keep a job.

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Highly successful tenure at Troy hasn't made Blakeney yearn for shot at a big-time job - FOX News

Posted: 28 Aug 2010 09:42 AM PDT

TROY, Ala. – Troy football coach Larry Blakeney works in a modest, cramped office, strolls around campus for exercise and is a regular at "The Pig," a cafe at the local Piggly Wiggly grocery store.

Though Blakeney's post is a few football fields — and tax brackets — removed from the seven-figure glamour jobs of major college football, only Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer and Penn State's Joe Paterno have led their FBS teams for longer.

He's had a career that could have landed him one of those big-time jobs, and paychecks to match, but he doesn't waste time wondering what might have been if his reputation hadn't been tarnished following a stint as an assistant at Auburn.

Instead, Blakeney is preparing for his 20th season at Troy, having led the Trojans up from Division II to FBS and to the past four Sun Belt Conference titles.

It's a low-key job in a low-key town in a state where college football is anything but; Alabama's Nick Saban rakes in $4 million a year a few hours away.

Displaying his trademark humor, the 62-year-old Blakeney points out that there are benefits to his longevity at Troy.

"You sort of know where everything is, I guess. When you get to be my age, you need a good hold on how to get in the building and how many steps there are before you open the door," he said. "There are advantages, because you get into a routine. And especially if you're able to win and be successful along the way, that routine is one that you sort of want to maintain if you can."

It's worked so far. Blakeney has a 153-77-1 record in his only college head coaching job with seven conference titles and two FCS semifinal appearances before moving up to FBS in 2001. He has won back-to-back Sun Belt coach of the year honors and led the Trojans to a 26-3 league mark during the four-year title run.

Of course, all that got a fraction of the attention of Saban & Co.'s national title last season.

Blakeney has enjoyed enough success at each level on the way up to have possibly earned a shot at a bigger, more well-known program.

The offers haven't come. Blakeney knows of at least one reason why: His reputation took a hit soon after he started at Troy following 14 seasons as an assistant at alma mater Auburn, where he played quarterback.

He was banned from contact with the university for his role in violations that led to NCAA probation in 1993. Former player Eric Ramsey admitted that he took money from Blakeney and other assistants.

The ban was lifted a decade ago, but Blakeney believes "there's no question" the episode hindered him from being a candidate for a high-profile job.

"I harbor no ill will toward anybody, not even the guy that produced all this problem," Blakeney said, referring to Ramsey. "Not at all. I still love Auburn and I still have a high regard for the University of Alabama. I'm not a hater of different people. I'm not the least bit bitter, not one iota."

In fact, he seems quite content. Blakeney's three daughters have graduated from Charles Henderson High School near campus and then from Troy. His wife, Janice, sells real estate in the town of 15,000, 45 minutes south of Montgomery.

Plus, they can eat at the cafe they've dubbed "The Pig" once a week or so. Saban, meanwhile, seldom ventures into Tuscaloosa restaurants because he gets mobbed by fans.

"I've been able to get to know and maintain a relationship with the townspeople and the folks in the area," Blakeney said. "I've been certainly part of the small-town environment. We both sort of grew up that way. We've really enjoyed living here."

Troy defensive coordinator Jeremy Rowell played on Blakeney's first Troy team. He calls him a "fabulous coach," but talks mostly about his personality and folksy charm.

"I'm sure he'd be offended if anybody says he's a celebrity in this town," Rowell said. "Everybody throughout the public knows him. He talks to everybody he sees. He'll go out and eat lunch and people say, 'Hey coach.' And he'll say hey and know who they are. That's just been from being here so long."

And that longevity comes from winning. Last season, the Trojans were the first Sun Belt team to go 8-0 in the league before falling 44-41 to Central Michigan in the GMAC Bowl. They have pulled upsets of Missouri and Oklahoma State since moving up to FBS, the former Division I-A.

And Blakeney & Co. also have landed underrated recruiting gems like Osi Umenyiora and DeMarcus Ware, now in the NFL.

Former players don't talk so much about his football acumen, though.

"He's just such a people person," said Mike Turk, a former Troy quarterback and assistant coach. "If you're around him five minutes you want to be around him for 10 more. At a place like Troy where there's a lot of good people, they recognize a good person, a genuine person.

"There have been a lot of people willing to help him with the program. It takes that. For a school like Troy in a small town to be as successful as it has on the ultimate level of football, you kind of have to have everybody on board. And he is that guy."

Blakeney also has changed with the times, switching from a run-oriented option attack to a fast-paced spread offense.

"The way he termed it was he was going to put the cart before the horse," said Turk, now head coach at Division III Huntingdon in Montgomery. "We were going to start running that style of offense before we had the players to run it. We took a lump or two along the way.

"You see the results now."

Blakeney couldn't have mapped out his career track, even minus the Ramsey situation.

After graduating from Auburn, he spent three months with a paper company in Atlanta. It was the last time he worked out of the state. He came back to sell insurance for a company partly owned by Bear Bryant.

Blakeney was sitting in a barbershop in his tiny hometown of Gordo, just outside Tuscaloosa, when a friend told him the Southern Academy coach had quit about a week before the season. Another friend recommended him for the job even though he had never coached.

Eight days later, they won their first game, 6-0, he said. They played for the state title in AISA, a private schools league, the second year. Two more high school stops led him back to Auburn.

"A lot of things happen and sometimes you don't know why," Blakeney said. "I think I was being manipulated a little bit by forces that knew what I needed to do. It's turned out to be right 40 years later, at least from the standpoint of being happy, having a little success and being around some great folks along the way."

From frat houses to practice field, London attacking Virginia job from all angles - FOX News

Posted: 28 Aug 2010 08:02 AM PDT

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Mike London didn't realize how consumed he had become with his new job as Virginia's football coach until his daughter asked him a question.

"Dad, are you coming to my concert?" Jaicyn asked about her elementary school performance. "You are supposed to come to my concert."

London made the concert, but "had to make some calls" to rearrange his schedule.

Then he was back promoting his program and trying to build goodwill on campus and in the community.

"This," London has said several times, "is a work in progress."

London, who was at Richmond, has been in constant motion since he was hired in December 2009 — working to turn around a Virginia program that had fallen on hard times under his predecessor, Al Groh.

It is London's third stint at Virginia, where he twice was an assistant to Groh.

Part of his plan has been to reach out to former players; he wants them to be part of Cavaliers football again.

Former quarterback Aaron Brooks, who played under George Welsh from 1996-98, welcomed the chance to get involved again. He and several other players recently attended a closed scrimmage and afterwards ate with the team.

Brooks is impressed by what he has seen.

"What makes coach London so dynamic is that he has the ability to relate to these kids, to these players," Brooks said. "I think that's something they missed with Al.

"It seems like they were not having fun. They were afraid to make mistakes," he said. "Any time you are having fun and not having an iron fist slapped on you, players will go out and do more than the coach can even imagine."

Perhaps no player appreciates the change more than quarterback Marc Verica.

He came out of nowhere to be the starter in 2008 after one quarterback was dismissed from school and another was declared academically ineligible. But last season, with Groh going with other options and a new offense, Verica went back into the background feeling like an afterthought.

This summer, as the Cavaliers' unquestioned leader, Verica led the team through optional 7 on 7 drills. He said the energy that London brings has infused the team.

"When you're here every day, you have a good feel just for the air, the atmosphere and the environment surrounding the team," he said. "There's no question it's been positive."

London also reached out to the community, inviting the Boys & Girls Club to attend practice. The team held a bone marrow drive, and London brought a benefactor to meet the team.

He visited sororities and fraternities, telling them he needed their help, and sent players to help with their fundraisers, trying to create a sense of reciprocal support.

"If you're going to ask people to do things like come to my games, you've got to show that you're interested in what they are doing, too," London said.

He visited with deans, assuring them that he was as committed as they are to having his team perform in the classroom, and was among the coaches doing class attendance checks.

"I have three rules," London said. "The first is go to class. Gotta go to class. The second is show class in all you do, and the third is treat people with dignity and respect."

On the academic side, the team he inherited had some problems.

"Some guys were scrambling to get in a position where they could breathe academically," he said. "It will be better than it was, because what it was not very good."

London has put together a coaching staff that shares his vision, meeting individually with players to lay out his expectations, and recruiting the state.

In Virginia, that means having a big presence — and a lot of success — in talent-rich Hampton Roads, where Hampton High School coach Mike Smith said Groh had "quit recruiting."

"I think Al just wanted people from a different area," Smith said.

A Hampton Roads native, London and his staff quickly began making inroads.

Smith's Crabbers this year will feature David Watford at quarterback; next season, he'll be at Virginia, the first Hampton player to commit to the Cavaliers in the past 10 years.

He chose Virginia over Virginia Tech, which has dominated recruiting in the area.

That's a step in the right direction, even if results this year might not be what Cavaliers fans are hoping for right away.