Older Adult Job Training In the Toledo Area

I had written awhile back about Owens College's grant to help train older unemployed people for reemployment. When I did a commentator noted that those programs  often take the form of  training for low wage jobs. Indeed, the program announced recently seems to somewhat bear that out. According to the Blade, Owens will provide free training in the fields of substitute teaching, clerical work and special education aide, with successful program graduates getting an interview with Renhill Group Staffing. For more information, call Gary Corrigan at 419-254-2863.

 A colleague of mine who had to pay towards the training she needed for her teaching certificate out of her own pocket said she would have found this a godsend, so your mileage may vary. In any case, it's mostly better paying than minimum wage. But it does demonstrate that "free money" and "free programs" are not free-form--they come with lots of conditions.

Financial Help for ACT Certified Work Readiness in Lucas County

Employers are looking for skills sets in hiring--skills like reading and math, but also personal and interpersonal skills.  Can you get certified for that?  Yes.  The ACT Work Readiness Certification tries to do that, and can help people prove themselves ready for different career paths than the ones they may already have taken in the past.  For communities, being able to boast having people with this certification is hoped to attract employers to the area.  That's why some states and counties are pushing the ACT Work Readiness Certification--and are providing financial help with preparing for and taking it.

One of these is Lucas County, Ohio  Political and business leaders in the community are pushing for Lucas County to be certified as a "work ready" community--with a couple of thousand people certified with the job skills that would be most attractive to employers.  So, although there is a charge for getting certified, Lucas County is going to cover that fee for people in economic need.    

If you want to be certified as "work ready" with the ACT certification under your belt, you can apply online here to participate in the Lucas County program.  If you would like more information, contact OhioMeansJobs Lucas County (formerly The Source) at 419-213-JOBS (5627) and ask for information about Work Ready Lucas County.

A list of states and counties participating in the ACT Work Readiness program are here, and there may be programs in those states and counties to help people prepare for the test.  Contact your local one-stop job center and see if a program like this is available in your community.

Six Month Paid Work Training Program for Young High School Dropouts--Youthbuild

There's a nationwide program for young, (18-24 year old) unemployed high school dropouts to do building in low-income neighborhoods for a stipend (pay), and gain job skills and toward the completion of the GED.  It's Youthbuild, and it's a private program run at the local level across the United States. 

Here's how it works: you work on building projects in low-income neighborhoods while gaining construction work skills, but also work on career planning and GED completion. There are nearly 300 local programs across the country.   Here's the map to find the location near you.  The Toledo, Ohio site is odd, in that it's run by WSOS, the community action agency in Fremont, but to be eligible to join, you must be a Lucas County resident.  The WSOS local program runs for six months.  You  have to be a high school dropout and unemployed, and a priority is given to residents of the United North neighborhood in north Toledo. In other places, the requirements may vary.  If you are a young person, check it out near you.

The Tech Job Training in Northwest Ohio is Up and Running

In digging around for other stuff, I found the final form of the tech training (and the financial help to pay of it) that was funded at Northwest Ohio Community College last winter.  The program is the  
iStar Initiave, and it's for people who want to be computer analysts, programmers, or software engineers.  You also have to pass a basic aptitude test for math, and have a financial need for the money.  You also have to be a resident of the following northwest Ohio counties: Crawford, Defiance, Fulton, Hardin, Hancock, Henry, Lucas, Ottawa, Paulding, Putnam, Sandusky, Seneca, Van Wert, Williams, Wood and Wyandot Counties.  The training takes place at the NWOCC in Archbold, or the Scott Park campus at the University of Toledo.  The eligibility requirements are here.  You have to be evaluated and interviewed, then prioritized for the 16 week, all-day training.  For more information, call 419-267-1512 (Archbold) or 419-267-1494 (Toledo).

Where Do You Find Out About Who Does Worker Training? Here's Where You Find Out First.

If you've been following this blog for awhile, you know that the big federal agencies are not where you go to get most forms of assistance.  The money gets sent from there to local and state agencies, and, with the exception of direct cash assistance from federal agencies, most of it becomes programs at the local level.  But how to find the local agencies?

If you are looking for stuff on worker's training, here's a site worth following.  It's the Department of Labor's ETA (Employment and Training Administration) news release site.  It announces statistics, like the latest unemployment insurance claim reports, but it also spills the beans on where training money is going.  For instance, you can find that Bastrop County, Texas, is getting about $350,000 to hire 69 temporary workers to do wildfire cleanup.   In a story we did earlier, you can also discover which institutions got a grant earlier in the year for high-growth job fields, and what jobs they were training people for.  If you find that a state agency got the money, you can check with the one-stop job centers to see if they know anything.

Here's another Department of Labor website--the recent grant awards given by the DOL Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.   In it, you will discover which local agencies got grants to fund training programs for formerly incarcerated women and girls.   You can use this information to approach them and see if you can benefit from this program, or any other they may have.  Here's a list of agencies that got a grant to train and education former offenders.  There is usually at least a few month gap between the grant and when it goes into effect, but you get an idea of who to contact--and at least who has an interest in helping people in your group, whether ex-offender, veteran, woman, etc.

 

New Effort to Match Veterans With Manufacturing Jobs and Training

In an ambitious effort to match unemployed veterans with manufacturing jobs, and match veterans who need training with appropriate programs, a partnership of major manufacturers (GE, Alcoa, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin and others) and technical and community colleges have created Get Skills to Work. The first goal is to get 15,000 veterans matched/trained for jobs in these firms and others.  Ultimately, they are aiming for over 100,000.  The coalition will start in the Cincinnati area January at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, and go to nine other cities further in 2013.  You may want to check out the website to see when and where you can sign up to participate in the program.

However, there’s stuff you can use on the website right now.  Go to the bottom of the page and find resources for veterans, where you can search for open positions at the Manufacturing Pipeline.  You can put in the location, and radius, and a military operation or job keyword (like manufacturing), and it will pull up positions that have been posted. 

You can also go to the Career Assessment area, in which you answer 14 questions that help you sort out your aptitudes and interests.  You are then presented with some career options, for which you can get information on pay levels and skills and training required, and jobs that are currently open. 

The third part involves the creation of “badges”—the matching of military occupation codes and civilian career skills and creating certification for those skills.  Create an account, upload your resume (or create one with their resume builder), and they will email you with notification if any of your skill sets match, and you are awarded a certification badge. 

In the “education” section, you can put in a career you would like to train for, your city and state, and the level of education you’d like to get, and it will spit out a list of institutions that provide it, as well as links to their financial aid information and other information about the school. 

There’s also a “community” section with discussion forums.    The resources page is pretty much a policy paper section for the National Association of Manufacturers, a major partner of the coalition.  And hey, in all of this, you only get *some* intrusive electioneering ads from the National Association of Manufacturers, who tell you to vote for the Good Guys and against the Bums That Are Destroying America.  Ah, but that’s why God made the “x” in the upper right hand corner. 

The Flip Side of On the Job Training Opportunities: Government Aid to Businesses that Need to Train Workers

Our last posting was aimed at workers who are looking for on the job training opportunities.  The obvious flip side is that employers can get the government to subsidize the training of their new workers to new skills.  In Ohio, employers who want to take advantage of this program can contact the Jobs and Family Services Department, 

Also, if you are an employer in another state, you may want to search google with "on the job training" and your state's name.  You could also contact the one-stop employment shop in your area as well. 

Another place to contact--if you are interested in hiring older (50+), low-income workers--would be Experience Works, a non-profit that works to train low-income older unemployed people to get jobs.  They operate in 30 states and Puerto Rico.  You can get in touch with a local office and find if they can match you up with trained older workers.  Likewise, if you are a low-income unemployed person (within 150% of the poverty level), they may be able to train you for full time employment.  It won't be for an executive or midlevel position, but you may be able to get a leg up to some sort of employment.

On the Job Training Programs in Ohio and Elsewhere

A bunch of us from the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library did a tour through The Source, a one-stop employment center, one of hundreds throughout the country, to see what they had to offer local job seekers, and programs available to them.  I'll cover some of the other programs in future dispatches, but the one that we'll talk about here is OJT, the On the Job Training Program that's funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and is available in Ohio and other areas of the country.

The program is aimed to help the long-termed unemployed (to be eligible, you must have been unemployed more that 158 days or 22 1/2 weeks, consecutively or not.  Are you a displaced worker, a displaced homemaker, and eligible, receiving or have exhausted your unemployment benefits?  You may be eligible.  In the program, a participating employer is reimbursed by the government for the cost of training these workers in the skills they need; the employer has an employee trained for nearly free, and the worker has a new job.  If you live in northwest Ohio and think you may be eligible and interested, call Dan at 419 213 5627.  Be sure to ask about documentation that you need, like a termination or layoff notice, or a tax form if you were formerly self-employed. 

Since the funding is federal, there are other places that have this program, too, but you will have to contact your own local one-stop employment center to see if it's available where you live.  "Available" depends on a lot of things: do you fit the criteria?  Did your state apply for the money from the Department of Labor?  If so, did they run through all the money, or is it still available?  Did some employers sign on for it?  Remember that being eligible for a jobs program is like riding a wave on a surfboard:  you have to be there and working actively with the job centers when the funding arrives, and definitely before it runs out.  And you never know when the wave will show up.  But if you're there, you may be eligible--and ready.

What's VRAP? A Job Retraining Program for Veterans

Lately, there's been a lot of ads for VRAP (veterans retraining assistance program).  Who is it for, and what are the qualifications?  According to this fact sheet, it's for unemployed veterans between 35 and 60 who have been other than dishonorably discharged, not in another federal or state retraining program and not eligible for another veterans program.  It covers 12 months, and has be in a program that leads to cetification or an associates degree.  And it has to retrain you for what is deemed a "high demand occupation:" the list is here.  For unemployed veterans with a service-related disability, there is an additional training program you may qualify for as well.  For more information, see this page on VOW (veterans opportunity to work) programs, or call 1-800-827-1000.

Finding Help and Support for Fathers

While not in the form of cash handouts, there is a growing network of help for fathers in their role of supporting and helping to raise their kids.  I was made aware of a program called Fatherhood Connections in nearby Wood, Ottawa, Sandusky Seneca and Hancock counties in Ohio that provides support services and job training for fathers in those counties.  Last fall, I also found out that part of the Northwest Ohio Reentry Coalition work involved helping fathers with child support issues.  It's part of a nationwide initiatve to help fathers. 

How do you find if there's a program in your area?  One way to track them is through the 211 social services system in your area. Another is to check this nationwide map of state and local fatherhood initiatives.  But it's not exhaustive.  However, if you find the state office in your state, you can check them out and see who they may have funded locally.

That's how I found out about a number of programs in Ohio:  the Urban Light program in Clark county/Springfield, Fame Fathers; in Portage, Stark, Medina, Summit and Wayne counties(Akron-Canton area) in Ohio, which runs among other things, mentoring for both younger and older fathers, help for incarcerated and soon-to-be-released fathers, and workforce opportunities for low-income fathers; and the Columbus Urban League's Fathers 2 Fathers program, which offers advocacy and support in child support, visitation, and other legal issues.

Another way to find programs in your area is to google "fatherhood initiative" and the name of your city. 

Future Sources of Job Training to Keep an Eye On

A story in the Toledo Blade the other day caught my eye.  It was the announcement that a regional education institution, Northwest State Community College $5 million grant to retrain workers in information technology, and that eventually it would train about 300 people. The program will cover 17 counties (you might want to check with Northwest State to see if your county is one of them).   That's a pretty small fraction of the people in northwest Ohio who need such training, but how do they get it?  This is the story of how "all that grant money" for re-education gets spent, and the detective work required to get it.

Let's read the article closely. It says that NSCC was one of 43 partnerships in 28 states to snag this particular grant, funded by fees charged by the Department of Labor to employers who import workers for their positions.  That means there's more grants out there for other retraining programs in other parts of the country.  But where?  Here's where.  The Department of Labor's press release gives the name of the other grant recipients, where they are and the target of their retraining spending.  One of them is Ohio University, which says the funding will go to health professional training. Another is River Valley Community College in New Hampshire, with an interest in manufacturing training and setting up people in apprenticeship programs. If you live in one of these places, this money may be coming down the pike soon.  Knowing the name of the instituion makes it easier to use google, or www.news.google.com for more announcement information, since it's likely that your local newspaper will run a story, or local congressman or senator will make an announcement.  Now you know which institutions will have programs, and may get some background on how the program will take shape in your area. All the institutions getting the grants are different, and so are their goals. 

Let's read further.  It says in the Blade story that NSCC will be working with WSOS and some other northwest Ohio institutions, and that WSOS will be helping select some of the students.  If you live in the WSOS area (Wood, Sandusky, Ottawa, or Seneca counties), you might want to check with them, and sign up for their employment programs, if possible, and ask if this will help you get on a waiting list for the new program. It may or may not, but you should be hooked up with whatever one-stop shop employment bureau is in your area.  In Toledo, it's the Source. It says that they are not picking people right away--they will need time to set up the program--but that you should check their website regularly for announcements.  That seems like a good idea.  Finding grants to recareer is like catching a train.  You need to be in the right place waiting for it when it comes around.

Free Job Training for Cruise Ship Jobs in Toledo, Free Health Care Training in New Jersey

I don't know how good the money is (they claim $1500-$3000 a months, with food, lodging and health care), but the Maritime Academy in Toledo has received grants to train adults (for free), in the cruise ship business.  In early 2012, they will have at least seven classes of about 20 people for a course of study to prepare for work in the cruise ship business.  If you want to apply, call 419-244-9999.

Also found a community college in New Jersey, Middlesex County College, that is providing grant-funded free training in allied health professions like phlebotomy, EKG tech, pharmacy technician, medical assistant, and more.  Depending on the profession, training runs from four weeks to 10 months. It's aimed at the under-employed and the unemployed, and applicants must have a high school diploma or GED.  Call 732-548-6000, ext. 3813. 

One Stop Shop for Unemployment Help

The find I made last week is a new page on Career One Stop, a federal jobs page.  This one is devoted to re-employment..  It’s supposed to help you find more sources for help if you run out of unemployment benefits. However, it is hampered by the fact that there really aren’t a lot of well-funded resources, and with the newest outbreak of budget-cutting fever in Washington, there will be even less to go around. It’s sad but true. For instance, the heating help? It’s slated for budget cutbacks later in the year. So good luck with that. But they present you with different state and federal options for the problems of unemployment.  Here’s the parts I found most interesting:


Finding your state’s job bank: This can be useful, as it gives you a centralized place to find job opportunities and put up a resume, if you wish.
Short term training finder: Use it to find a training program in your state in 2 or less years that is eligible for federal aid:
WIA (workforce investment act) retraining providers: schools that provide training and are eligible for WIA funds (IF there’s money for them, and IF you qualify).

Occupation training finder.  This site finds training and education providers in your state that are eligible for federal aid.  Simply input the occupation that you want, the state in which you live and the level of education you are seeking, and it will give you a list of education providers in your state that are eligible for federal aid.

State Financial Aid Links: Links for each state’s scholarship programs. Many states have statewide scholarship programs for different groups of students, like those in particular professions or for groups of students, like the children of deceased veterans, etc.

Comparing Schools for Job Training--Bonus Ohio Goodness

The last post discussed the need to research and compare schools provide training or education. In Ohio, the Jobs and Family Services site has a feature that makes it easier. It's the Site for searching Eligible Training Providers. Click "search by training provider." Then, put in the name of a program, say, for instance, truck driver, in the search box by "program name." Then, under the county search box, click the text that allows you to pick up to five counties. A map appears that allows you to click up to five counties to search for a truck driving program. Pick your counties, click "save and exit," and then click "search." It will come up with those programs, at schools in those counties. Mark the schools that you want on your comparison list, then click "view comparison list." It will show you the costs, fees, accreditation, and length of training for each program. It's a huge help in figuring out the program that best helps you.

Also, when figuring out the potential wages and career outlook for your future, Ohio Labor Market statistics provides lots of information about job pay and growth in particular areas of Ohio. It's a good way to get a realistic picture of what a job will pay and the likelihood of getting it.

For-Profit Schools and You

The Department of Education published proposals to change the rules by which for-profit secondary and vocational schools are eligible for student aid. It’s crucial because for many institution, this eligibility is their bread and butter—no federal aid, no students. The feds have been concerned about the low federal loan repayment rate from students of these institutions (at about 36%, even though the rate for nonprofit and state institutions are not anything to write home about, either—barely more than half). Even worse is a report by the Education Trust, in which they reported that for profit schools have a six-year graduation rate of about 22%.  More to the point, the feds feel that students are oversold on expensive courses of study that will not result in equally high-paying jobs, leaving the Department of Education on the hook for those loans. Under the proposed rules, institutions would have to have a track record of fairly decent repayment among their graduates, and/or their graduate would have to make money that makes them “gainfully employed,” (with a student debt/earning ratio of 12% of their total income, or 30% of their discretionary income. Schools that fall in-between may have restricted eligibility for student aid. The final rules are expected by November 1st.
In the meantime: how do you protect yourself from acquiring an overpriced, worthless piece of paper?
1) Check all the schools in your area for programs in which you are interested. See which ones may be less expensive. See which ones offer different types of aid. How much of the expenses does that aid cover? And, if the aid is in the form of a loan, it’s still not at all worthwhile unless you graduate and make the money to cover it. Could you study the same thing more cheaply at another school in your area? If your library has it, look at the College Blue Book's volume on occupational education, and the volume on college majors to find all schools that carry a particular program.
2) Check out the occupation that you want to enter. Does it require accreditation or graduation from an accredited program? Is the institution you are considering accredited? If not, your education may be entirely wasted, and your job prospects dim. Go to your library and find some national professional organizations for that profession and see if they give accreditation (for instance, the American Library Association accredits library schools. In many places, only graduates of these programs are considered for higher-ranking or even entry positions.)
3) Watch out for the hard sell and misleading information. This problem was featured prominently in the GAO report. If a person from the institution says the occupation is high-paying, there are ways of checking this out. Above all, don’t sign anything right away. If the school is a good deal, it will still be a good deal after a couple of day’s investigation. Also, use sources like the online Occupational Outlook Handbook to see what the job outlook is for that profession, and what you can reasonably expect to make.
4) Does your state require a license to practice that occupation? If so, what are the requirements? Would this school help you obtain them? A good place to start is Govspot. Click on your state and find the part re: licensing. See if your occupation needs a license. Call the state licensing board for that occupation and find out what their requirements are.

***Update***: the U.S. Department of Justice and the states of California, Florida, Illinois and Indiana have filed a massive fraud suit against Education Management, claiming that the second largest for-profit higher education company in the country: "...consistently violated federal law by paying recruiters based on how many students it enrolled. The suit said that each year, Education Management falsely certified that it was complying with the law, making it eligible to receive student financial aid."  Stay tuned.

Educational Opportunities for Veterans and Their Families

Via the office of Ohio State Representative Barbara Sears (District 46), there is a pamphlet with links to information about help and opportunities for veterans (insert frowny face here, because she didn't create an online resource.) But I'll put some of them up for Memorial Day.

One whole page is devoted to links about education and training opportunities available to veterans and their families. Among them are links to a page on the GI bill, the Ohio Department of AMVETS job skills training program, and the Ohio jobs skills training program for veterans through the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. Ohio's GI Promise program is a bit hazier--from what I can read, it involves broadening the eligibility for in-state tuition rates for veterans and their families, and some cooperative work between the public and private sectors to create more opportunities from veterans, and is still evolving.

Then there are the scholarships, like the Ohio War Orphans Scholarship, the Ohio National Guard Scholarship Program (offering a fully paid scholarship to a public Ohio college or university, and an equal monetary scholarship for a private school, after committing to a six year Guard enrollment), the AMVETS scholarships for the kin of wartime veterans, and the American Legion American Legacy Scholarship.

Will You Be Showered With Money? Depends on Whether You are in the Funding Stream...

After my last posting, I called the local one-stop career center (here in Toledo), and asked about money for job re-training. They confirmed that the online list at the state Jobs and Family Services site was the list of approved institutions for retraining. But they added, "Right now, all our money is spent until July, except for auto workers and displaced workers (workers displaced by foreign competition)."

What does that mean? It means that money for the funding streams set aside for those two groups of workers is still available, but that this money cannot be spent for any other retraining candidates. If you aren't one of these, you have to wait till July, when more general money becomes available. Maybe.

This is one of the hardest things for people to understand about the "billions" of dollars available in grants. Most of it is sent not directly to individuals, but to institutions like the one-stop career centers, who then earmark it for uses like job retraining. But the centers received the money on the condition that it be used for certain purposes that the government wants to accomplish. The funding stream for general job retraining is gone, but money came for those two other population groups. And it can only be used for that.

It happens a lot in funding. A nonprofit may create an IDA to help people buy houses, start businesses, or go to school. The funding from the first may come from HUD, and can only be spent for home buying or fixup; the second from the SBA, and can only be used to start businesses. The third might be from the Education Department, and the funds can't be mingled or used differently. And the funding doesn't last forever. If the SBA money runs out and isn't renewed, potential entrepreneurs will have to go elsewhere for funds. If you understand this, you will be more patient--and less frustrated--in trying to get funds for yourself.

How Can I Get Money for Work Retraining?

Many people seeking to re-career are hampered by the lack of traditional scholarship money for non-traditional, non-degree education at places that offer certificates instead of 2 or 4 year degrees. How do you get money to go to trucking school, or become a beautician? The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) was created partly to address that. One of the things that sprang out of it was the naming of trade schools around the country as "eligible training providers." This means that students attending these schools are eligible for financial assistance to attend via the Workforce Investment Act. Last week, I listed a website for Ohio.


But you can find WIA eligible schools around the country at the CareerOneStop website. Just click your state to get a search engine to identify schools for that state. Once within a state, you can find different search engines that vary in how they allow you to search: by geography, or field of study, etc.


Other options: if you are a veteran, schools that are approved by the Veteran's Administration for education and job training. Or other things previously mentioned in this blog, as well as proprietary schools (private vocational schools) approved for funding within their state, such as Ohio or Michigan.

We Found It! Where to Find Places to Retrain.

I knew for a long time that the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services had a place where you could find education places that were eligible training providers (ETP). But where? Here's where. Click this link, and you can search for ETP's in an up to five county area, by name of program OR name of provider. Thus, if you wished to find cosmetology schools in an area that are certified training providers, you could put in the word "cosmetology" and click on the counties you want, and see the list. It will tell you their course of studies, costs, and what type of financial aid they are eligible to receive.

Can Recovery Money Help Me?

Where is the economic recovery money going? Much of it is going to education and public works, but some of it may be headed towards you, if you know where to look. In Toledo, some block grants have been turned into programs to buy and develop foreclosed property and fix the exteriors of homes. Also, new money has come to improve the energy efficiency of homes for low and moderate income people.

How can you find that money where you live? Get in touch with your city’s housing or development department and see if they have gotten new housing funds, what programs they may have. Remember, that these funds are a one-shot deal with limited resources, so that once the money runs out, the program is over. Also, not all communities have spent their funds on the same types of programs. Many of the nation’s community action agencies (of which there are over 1000 in the U.S.), have gotten funds for heating and energy efficiency home fixups. Find the one in your area, and see if you qualify. Job retraining money has gone to workforce training centers around the United States. Locate the one near you and see if there are retraining programs you can use. These are the levels of government that actually have and distribute programs and services.