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Training available to area veterans
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ONLINE: Gregory Wedin, a coach at the Post 290 Career Center in vienna, and manager Joann Stevens check out one of the Internet-based programs for Ohio veterans.
AMVETS career centers are located at Post 290 in Vienna and Post 45 in Salem.
Military veterans, listen up.
Some 260 Internet-based training courses, from beginning computer class for novices to an in-depth curriculum that prepares students for Microsoft certification exams, are available free to Ohio veterans through AMVETS Career Centers in Vienna and Salem.
The classes are also free to active-duty personnel deployed outside Ohio and their spouses and children if they are Ohio residents until the active-duty member returns to Ohio. The program, funded by AMVETS Department of Ohio, a military veterans service organization, is also open to the general public for a fee.
The career centers in the tri-county area, among 65 in Ohio, are located at AMVETS Post 290, 290 Youngstown-Kingsville Road (state Route 193), Vienna; and at AMVETS Post 45, 750 S. Broadway Ave., Salem.
The career centers offer not only computer classes, but programs in r sum writing, typing, business math, career development, 401(k) retirement plans, grammar, managing change, stress management, time management, work and life balance, Internet marketing, and literally hundreds more.
Veterans can save a lot of money, and people who score at least 70 percent on examinations receive certificates that can help them in the job market, said Gregory Wedin, the new coach at the Post 290 Career Center.
Wedin, who works in the computer room at the Kmart Distribution Center in Bazetta Township, is a 1970 graduate of Warren Western Reserve High School. He served in the Navy from 1970 to 1976, where he was a photographers mate, and is a member of AMVETS.
“I think the career centers are the best thing to hit Northeast Ohio,” said Robert Beltempo, supervisor/coach at the Salem Career Center.
A lot of veterans are coming back from Iraq to find the manufacturing base disintegrated, and the career centers can give them a free avenue to move from manufacturing to technology, said Beltempo, who previously owned his own business, Computer Consultant Group.
Beltempo said the AMVETS program can be particularly valuable for people who may have spent many years in manufacturing and do not know how to prepare r sum s or prepare for interviews, or how to get training for a technology-driven workplace. He said he had one 45-year-old man come in and take some computer classes and started off at a $45,000-a-year job in Columbiana.
“The biggest thing is it gives them confidence,” said Beltempo, who served in the Navy in 1964 and 1965 on an aircraft carrier in the Vietnam theater of operation.
Career center coaches verify eligibility for services, discuss career plans, register students for instruction, assign them a user ID and password, and show them how to log in to the Mindleaders online school to access their courses. Once that process is complete, students can work at the center or at home or on any computer that has an Internet connection.
Patti Cunningham, the now-deceased wife of the Post 290 commander, William Cunningham of Brookfield, spearheaded the effort to establish the career center at the post, and was its first coach. When she died in May 2007, activity in the program fell off.
Widen, who was taking courses when Mrs. Cunningham was the coach, said he volunteered to do the program because he wanted to keep it going and because he enjoys teaching.
“It make me feel good to see the spark in someone’s eyes when they realize what they can do,” he said.
Cunningham, who served in the Marine Corps from 1968 to 1972, including two tours in Vietnam, said the post established its satellite career center because there are a lot of veterans in the area and “we thought it would be beneficial to them and their families.”
Wedin, of Warren, said there are 28 people enrolled at the Post 290 Career Center, but there is room for many more. He said the center hours of 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays and 3 to 7 p.m. Fridays can be expanded. Also, he said he will meet with applicants by appointment.
The Salem Post 45 Career Center has about 60 people enrolled in its program, Beltempo said.
alcorn@vindy.com