NET WORKING TOGETHER Computer courses open doors for clients

Some who took the course were able to find better jobs as a result of the training.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- A computer instruction class for clients of a group of community and social service organizations is being touted as a classic example of what can be accomplished by working together.
"No money changed hands," said Dick Turner, president of Technical Education Solutions Inc. (TES). "It was just community organizations working together."
TES, a nonprofit, state-funded educational agency, provided the computer lab for three classes.
The first class went so well that two others were also held, providing basic computer instruction to a total of 36 women, Turner said.
It was the 12 members of the first class who pushed for the second and third sessions, he recalled, noting that those women recruited people to fill the second class.
How it began
The need for training came out of the Prince of Peace Center in Farrell where some clients were interested in basic computer training but programs that were available were either too advanced or didn't meet at convenient times, said Kelly Ross, program coordinator for the Project Ruth program at Prince of Peace.
"It's really the ideal way to do a collaboration," said Cheryl Panek , program coordinator of the Sharon Lifelong Learning Council.
She said other agencies, including the local office of the state Department of Public Welfare and the Sharon Family Center, had clients interested in computer education as well but there were no computer labs available for use in the daytime.
Daytime was the desired training period because a number of the clients have children in school, Panek said.
The organizations eventually approached TES and Turner said his group was pleased to be able to offer its computer lab free of charge. The normal cost for using the lab is $50 a day. Nonprofit agencies get it for free, he said.
Ross said the Prince of Peace clients who took the 12-week computer education course got more out of it than just learning how to operate a computer. The course provided help with writing r & eacute;sum & eacute;s as well as information on looking for employment opportunities.
Some of the Prince of Peace clients in the program have added computer work to their jobs and others have found better jobs as a result of the course, Ross said.
TES runs its own computer training programs in the lab at its offices at 1333 E. State St. but had open lab time available for these classes, he said, noting they each met twice a week for three hours at a time over a period of 12 weeks.
Looking ahead
Marsha Bucciarelli, TES technical services director, said TES is looking to take the program out into communities to make it more accessible.
TES opened just over a year ago. It was created to assess what the community needs in the form of job training that isn't being provided and then come up with a way to provide it.
The agency has been able to fill a niche, primarily in computer education, that local colleges don't offer, Bucciarelli said.
A lot of that is in the area of upgrading skills and customized training classes, Turner said, noting that TES will set up a class for as few as three students.
"We need to know what small groups of people need to learn," Bucciarelli said, noting TES can also provide customized classes for businesses.
There are some unusual classes that TES is planning as the demand grows. They include massage therapy, medical coding and computer forensics related to the field of identity theft, Turner said.