By Staff
Staff Reports
Washington’s Impressions Marketing Group on Thursday night received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Workforce Development.
Natalie Castro, who works for the Beaufort County JobLink Career Center, received the Wayne Daves Award for Outstanding Achievement in Workforce Development.
Their awards were among two of seven awards presented during the 2007 Workforce Development Partnership Conference in Greensboro.
Impressions, another company and five people received awards at the conference. The awards honor individuals and businesses for outstanding accomplishments and contributions in helping the North Carolina achieve its workforce development goals.
Impressions makes display cases and signs for retail stores. It is housed in the former Hamilton Beach plant on Springs Road. Impressions, with its headquarters in Lorton, Va., plans to expand its Washington operations, adding 120 jobs and investing $3.25 million at its local facility in the next three years. The expansion will be funded in part by a $240,000 state grant that was announced earlier this year.
Programs the company has endorsed, implemented and committed resources to include School-to-Work, incumbent workforce development, new and expanding industry training, WorkKeys profiling and WorkKeys skills testing.
Castro is the lead employment specialist for Beaufort County JobLink, which serves Region Q. She participated in the Adult Workforce Investment Act program before being hired as a core service provider at the Joblink office in January 2005.