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Job readiness program offered
YOUNGSTOWN
An anti-poverty agency on the city’s North Side offers a free six-week job readiness program that prepares low-income Mahoning County residents to launch a competitive 21st-century job search, in which computer literacy is critical.
“Everybody in here is going to have at the end of the class a decent knowledge of computer skills,” Roger Beltz, job-readiness class instructor and a licensed social worker at the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership, told participants in a recent program orientation class.
“Between 80 and 90 percent of the jobs nowadays do not do paper and pencil or paper and pen resumes or applications anymore,” said Beltz, who is MYCAP’s employment skills and training program coordinator.
Most employers use online application procedures, which require some computer use competency, he said. “You don’t have to be Einstein, but you have to be computer savvy,” he observed.
The program, which the agency tries to offer at least five times a year, is designed to teach participants the skills they need to get and keep a job, not to train them for a specific job, Beltz said.
“We try to structure it like a real job, like the dry run to get you back in the habit of getting here on time and being attentive in class,” Beltz told the orientation participants.
MYCAP offers the federally funded training, which covers motivational and interviewing techniques, computer and financial literacy, writing and formatting a resume, life skills and mock job interviews.
The program also helps participants overcome barriers to employment, such as inability to pass a drug test or lack of child care or transportation.
For example, if transportation is a barrier, the agency provides monthly bus passes for participants, Beltz said.
“There are a lot of agency resources out there that we partner with,” to help participants overcome barriers to employment, he told the class.
“Once you find employment, you’ll be earning income, so we talk a lot about savings, opening savings and checking accounts, and budgeting – how to spend your money so that it lasts throughout the month,” Kimberly Omoregie, MYCAP’s job readiness program support specialist, said of the program’s financial literacy component.
One of the orientation participants, Janaro Mitchell, 34, of Youngstown, said he has had jobs in a plastics factory, as a restaurant dishwasher, as a church kitchen dishwasher and prep cook and a supermarket janitor.
However, Mitchell said he has been out of the workforce for the last several years, taking care of his four children, ranging in age from 9 months to 16 years, while his wife works outside the home.
“This is actually helping me out more than anything because I didn’t get to graduate” high school, Mitchell said of the program orientation. “I had my son when I was in high school,” added Mitchell, who said he wants to earn his GED.
“I’m tired of feeling like I’m not doing anything ... I need to feel like I’m accomplishing something,” Mitchell said of his desire to re-enter the workforce.
Melissa Nakley Rios, 49, of Youngstown, who graduated from MYCAP’s job readiness program last year, recently earned a master’s degree in psychology and hopes to earn a doctorate in that field.
“I felt it had a lot of skills that I needed to brush up on,” including resume revision, she said of the MYCAP class.
“It had a lot of mock interviews” to refresh job interviewing skills, she added.
Computer literacy is now “extremely critical,” for a successful job search, she said. “A lot of the jobs that I’ve had offers on, they don’t call me. They send them via email” or text messages, she observed.
Some job interviews are now done via Facebook and Skype, she noted.
All chosen participants receive a free portfolio, flash drives, interview clothing, job-placement assistance and possible financial assistance to overcome employment barriers, regardless of criminal or financial backgrounds.
Most participants are referred to the program through social-service agencies, but some come through court-ordered probation or learn of the program by word of mouth.
“There’s always a benefit to anyone who can take part in any employment skills and training program to get current information,” said Mary Ann Kochalko, chief operating officer of the Mahoning-Columbiana Training Association.
“Even for those who may have had some training in the past, it’s beneficial to get a refresher. Interviewing techniques and computer literacy are particularly important to job seekers,” she added.
MCTA operates local OhioMeansJobs centers, which help job seekers find and maintain employment.
MYCAP has scheduled free two-hour orientations for its employment skills and training program to begin at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. today and Monday and Tuesday in its office at 1325 Fifth Ave., at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Broadway.
Attendance at only one of these orientation sessions is needed to enroll in the program, which will meet from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily, Monday through Thursday, for six weeks, beginning Jan. 30 in MYCAP’s office.
Participants must have a high-school diploma or be working on a general educational development certificate and must have incomes at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty level, meaning the household income eligibility limit for a family of four is $30,375 a year.
For information, call Beltz at 330-747-7921, ext. 1724, between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The office is closed Fridays.