When it comes to educational opportunities for adults and workforce training, Wareham is a bit of a desert—but there may be an oasis on the horizon.

Wareham falls into the Greater New Bedford Workforce Investment Board’s  coverage area, and on Wednesday evening, Executive Director and CEO George Hempe was at Town Hall to discuss ways in which the board could help provide in-town services to help people gain employment.

“There’s a lot of work to do,” said Hempe. “It will take a little time, but you have to start somewhere.”

Community and Economic Development Authority Director Salvador Pina agreed. “You have to cross the bridge to get there,” he said.

Hempe explained that his organization helps local cities and towns get the funds they need to provide workforce training and programs to help youths transition out of high school and into the workforce.

“We have moneys for at-risk students,” he said, adding that both private and public funding could potentially be used for programs in Wareham. “If we get an idea or a project that someone comes up with, we can help.”

Pina said the retail, healthcare, and hospitality industries employ the most people in town.

“In order to grow businesses, we really need to figure out how to train workers,” he said. “Job training at the post-secondary level. A lot of kids that graduate don’t go on to college.”

Citing an 11.4 percent poverty rate in Wareham and September unemployment rate of 7.1 percent, Pina said that one of the main problems is a lack of jobs that provide sustainable incomes.

“You’re not going to get that if you don’t have a highly-skilled workforce,” said Hempe.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kimberly Shaver-Hood said she’d like to see the schools get involved with job-training programs that students could attend while still in high school.

“Trying to find employment is tough . . . Anything we can do, we’re open to,” she said, while admitting the district’s financial limitations. “We have many needs we’re unable to fund.”

Hempe said the Workforce Board is now working on several programs in the New Bedford area, including one through which he expects to place more than 640 interns in businesses.

He said he’d take the input provided from those in the Wareham audience back to his group in New Bedford to see what they could do to help provide Wareham with more related services.