UC San Diego Extension Offers
$100,000 in Grants To Jobless

October 29, 2008

By Henry DeVries

Because California's jobless rate has remained at  7.7 percent for the past two months, the highest level since 1996 and the third highest in the nation, UC San Diego Extension is offering $100,000 in grants to help jobless San Diegans.

While San Diego County performed better than the state, the local September unemployment rate of 6.4 percent is significantly higher than the September 2007 rate of 4.8 percent. Some fear the rate could climb as high as 9 percent in the coming months.

To help San Diegans in this difficult time, the first 500 San Diegans who are on unemployment and who apply in person may enroll at no charge in up to three career and life stage seminars at UC San Diego Extension on a space available basis. Seminars are priced from $45 to $75 apiece.

Seminar topics cover such subjects as career changing, networking, resumes, corporate politics, salary negotiation, and mastering the interview. Seminars are taught by a team of career specialists with experience in helper with career search and professional development.

To apply for the career seminar grants, visit the Web site at extension.ucsd.edu/careergrant. Grant recipients will need to provide proof of unemployment status to enroll.

UC San Diego also offers regular free information sessions on how to get a job at the university (jobs.ucsd.edu). The campus is San Diego County’s 3rd largest employer (behind the federal government and state government), with a monthly payroll in excess of $104 million and nearly 26,000 employees.

For the convenience of working adults, classes for most of Extension’s 80 certificate programs and more than 12 specialized study programs are held evenings and weekends on the UC San Diego main campus and three other locations in Sorrento Mesa, Rancho Bernardo and Mission Valley.

Each year about 22,000 individuals enroll in Extension’s 3200 university-level professional and enrichment courses to enhance their knowledge for today’s shifting global economy. That includes 9,000 online learners and 2,200 visiting students from 45 countries.

Trailing only Michigan and Rhode Island, recent increases have pushed unemployment in California to the third-highest level in the country. The statewide rate of 7.7 percent in September and August compared with 7.4 percent in July and 5.5 percent in August 2007. Unemployment in California is still lower than during the early 1990s recession, when the statewide rate climbed to almost 10 percent.

Media Contact: Henry DeVries, -534-9955