Training program serves adults seeking jobs

Students using the cooking school are likely to get a job, an official said
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Though it has not produced a large number of participants, the Trumbull County Job and Family Services Department has found success with a program that teaches cooking skills to county residents at the Winner Institute of Arts & amp; Sciences in Transfer, Pa.
"For what it does, it is good training," said Judith Williams, Workforce Investment Act supervisor for the department's One-Stop job training and placement center on West Market Street.
The school prepares adults to work in a number of areas, but it is not designed to train someone to be a top chef right away.
"Some have unrealistic expectations. They think they are going to be a top chef in Paris or something," Williams said.
Williams said the department has provided up to $6,500 for training through the school for six people since 2003 and has had students in the program since at least 2000. She believes all six have found jobs after completing the 15-month program, though one of the participants quit the program partway through to take a different job.
Not for everybody
Williams said the program is not for everyone.
"You have to look at people who are really interested in the field," she said. But she credits the school for being successful for the job seekers who have used it. She spent a half-day there some years ago and feels it carries out the WIA's goals.
The school is in a former school building on Edgewood Drive less than a mile from state Route 18, about 30 miles from Warren. Owned by James E. Winner Jr. of Winner International, Sharon, Pa., it boasts an above 90 percent placement rate for its graduates. Williams said it is the nearest cooking school to Warren.
Williams said most students who use the federal WIA training money to attend the school learn about it on their own and find out later that the training funds are available to pay for it.
The student must arrange for any additional costs above $6,500 on their own, for instance, through loans, she said. She said the $6,500 figure changes each year depending on funding.
Williams said one student graduated from the program last June and is working as a cook at Squaw Creek Country Club in Vienna. Another completes the program in March.
Hands-on training
The school's Web site says the program is designed to provide hands-on training in cooking and baking skills while developing a student's dexterity of knife skills, speed, timing and coordination.
Graduates will be prepared for entry-level positions as cooks in a wide variety of food service organizations such as restaurants, institutions, cafeterias, private households, fast-food restaurants, hospitals, bakeries, hotels and retail establishments, the Web site says.
Overall, the most popular areas for career training right now through her agency are in the health field and truck driving, Williams said.
Many people are using WIA funding to study to be a nurse, surgical technician or medical assistant. Others are studying to get a commercial driver's license and hazardous material certification so they can drive trucks hauling hazardous materials.
The JFS assists people looking for work by helping them decide what career areas are best suited for them and by helping them find job opportunities that are the most plentiful. She added, however, that the federal government "is very strong about giving the customer a choice" to select the type of training they want.
"What we are doing is trying to avoid people becoming a professional student," Williams said of the JFS One-Stop training center in general and her WIA program in particular. "This is all about people getting good jobs."
WIA is one part of the agencies the federal and state governments use to carry out the goal of providing job training to Americans instead of the handouts that were part of the old welfare system, she added.
For more information, call the One-Stop office at (330) 675-2179.