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Change One Thousand graduate Marjorie McCormack, left, visits with Greene County Commissioner Harold Bengsch and Springfield Mayor Ken McClure.
Photo provided by Missouri Job Center
Change One Thousand graduate Marjorie McCormack, left, visits with Greene County Commissioner Harold Bengsch and Springfield Mayor Ken McClure.

Sharpening Skills: Change One Thousand aims to instill confidence for job seekers

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An August graduation was the fourth in what is expected to be a long line of capstone ceremonies over the next two-plus years in a pre-employment skills training academy.

Sixteen students in the Change One Thousand program received certificates of completion during the Aug. 24 ceremony at the Missouri Job Center. The academy’s first cohort was held in January through a partnership between the city of Springfield’s Department of Workforce Development and the Ozark Region Workforce Development Board.

Sixty-eight participants have graduated from the first four cohorts, said Mary Ann Rojas, the city’s workforce development director. That leaves 932 to go.

“By the end of 2020, we want to touch 1,000 people and provide them with work readiness certification,” she said.

Rojas said the program exists to find solutions to the problem that employers have in finding work-ready employees. She said the Missouri Job Center and Ozark Region Workforce Development Board started a State of the Workforce Survey in 2014 to identify issues and challenges among employers. Soft skills and work readiness – the minimum qualifications for specific occupations – come up as concerns year after year, she said.

“There are so many soft skills training off the shelf that you can get. There are hundreds, literally, but we still continue to see the problem,” she said. “We wanted to do something that could be measurable and be impactful to the community and really address a long-standing issue.”

Getting to work
The Change One Thousand program is not patterned after another one elsewhere, Rojas said, and it took about a year to implement after Missouri Job Center officials proposed the idea to the regional workforce board.

Bryan University instructors teach the first six days of the eight-day schedule. Among schedule offerings are instruction in workplace safety, time blocking, conflict resolution, understanding the paycheck and professional image. The program’s final two days include National Career Readiness Certificate training, resume writing, interview training and mock interviews.

For Reymond Wright, who graduated from the fourth cohort with his wife Cat, interview training was helpful for personal improvement. The training taught him how to build himself up in an interview, while also addressing body posture and attitude. “That was really important,” he added.

His wife agreed that the interview training gets you thinking about questions like, “What do you consider your weakness?”

“It’s not a weakness, it’s an area where you’re wanting to improve,” she said.

The Elkland couple admittedly was skeptical upon hearing about Change One Thousand in July while at the Job Center, Cat Wright said. “You always walk into something like that and want to give it a chance,” she said, adding she is currently on a wait list to enroll in Cox College of Nursing and her husband is seeking employment with the Battlefield Fire Department. In the meantime, she and Reymond, who works part-time as a paramedic with CoxHealth, plan to attend Beyond the Basics School of Cosmetology in Marshfield, just to keep work options open.

Change One Thousand was initially funded by a $150,000 investment by the local workforce board. It has since received a $99,000 grant from the Missouri Division of Workforce Development, Rojas said. The fund is maintained through public and private donations, she added, and disbursed by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks.

There are no age restrictions, and Rojas said participants have ranged between 18 and 88 years old.

Confidence booster
Springfield’s current unemployment rate of 3.1 percent serves as a challenge to employers looking for qualified job candidates from a relatively small pool, Rojas said.

“With such a low unemployment rate, many of the individuals we are providing intensive help to really have some barriers,” she said, citing long-term unemployed or never employed, including youth who might not know how to get a job. “So we’re dealing with individuals that do need that additional, intensive assistance. And that’s what Change One Thousand does because we also have a case manager that is assigned to each class.”

She said all participants thus far have paid for the program through job training grants offered by the Missouri Job Center.

For those not seeking funding assistance, the cost for the program is $400.

“In fact, if I were a parent right now, I would pay the $400 to have my graduating senior go through this class,” Rojas said.

The Job Center plans to host the next cohort Sept. 19-28. Katherine Trombetta, Missouri Job Center business services specialist, said classes will be held monthly through the end of the year.

“Younger people need to be going to this,” Cat Wright said.

She said Change One Thousand was a big confidence booster for her.

“I can walk into any interview now, and would probably be in the top five of an employer picking me,” she said. “I can go in with my head held high.”

Building up confidence is exactly what Rojas wants the academy to achieve with all of its participants.

“It’s really interesting to see the confidence it instills in them,” she said. “I think that’s really the core of Change One Thousand, is to build confidence. Because when we have confidence, it’s easier for you to apply for a job. It’s easier for you to get through that interview.”

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