Need a job in West Alabama? Brookwood Career Center open

West Alabama Works has opened the Brookwood Career Center to help deliver job training services to people seeking employment in healthcare, hospitality and manufacturing.

The center, located at 15706 Alabama 216, across from the Brookwood Town Hall, opened Monday.

It is the first regional workforce center operated by a business-led workforce council and is funded by a $1.5 million grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Gary Nichols, chairman of the West Alabama Works Steering Committee, said the center will help fill workforce needs in manufacturing and the auto industry, among others.

"We're here to generate meaningful results," he said.

The center is one pillar of the West Alabama Works 2020 Initiative, which involves using job training, among other initiatives, to offset the effects of coal industry layoffs. Over the next three years, 24 outreach events are being planned to continue the work.

Project grant manager Bob Johnson said the center's work will help Tuscaloosa, Fayette, Walker, Lamar, Bibb and Hale counties.

"A range of services will focus on families impacted directly by the slow-down in the coal industry, or indirectly if their livelihood was affected because their jobs relied on that industry or its workers," he said.

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