CareerCenter will move office, focus - Training, not job support, new purpose

PARIS — At the end of August, the CareerCenter in South Paris will close its doors and open them again in a different office, with a narrower focus and fewer services.

From early September on, the Center will concentrate on training job-seekers for skilled positions in Maine's economy. The shift will mean moving the office from the Western Maine Community College University building and reducing services.

The move may leave job-seekers with a limited source of core "front-end" assistance – the Center has provided access to services such as help with on-line job applications, resume writing and the job search, as well as a place to fax applications, use a computer to search and apply for jobs and use the telephone to set up interviews.

According to Jim Trundy, the CareerCenter program manager for Western Maine Community Action (WMCA), between 300-400 people a month use the core services at the center.

He says that with the shift, the CareerCenter will try and provide the same services but not in the same format.

"We won't have an information center," he explains. "We won't have a bank of computers you can come in and use, but there will be a connection point to services here."

Trundy says he was informed by the regional Workforce Investment Board (WIB) in June that the CareerCenter should concentrate its efforts on job training.

The WIB channels federal money from the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), that flows through the Maine Department of Labor.

Trundy says that the WMCA  has struggled to provide the core CareerCenter services for years as its budget shrank due to annual reductions of WIA funds.

In this year's budget, the WMCA simply cannot afford to increase training opportunities and keep the same level of core services, Trundy says.

Jeff Sneddon, the director of the WIA that oversees Oxford County, says he pushed the CareerCenters to focus on training as a way to reduce the gap between a surplus of skilled positions and a dearth of skilled workers to fill them in the state.

He says that the WIA's emphasis on training is in line with Governor Paul LePage's outlook.

"Our focus and also the Governor's focus is on increased training opportunity," Sneddon explains.

"If you've got a skills gap then you need to help re-tool and retrain the folks for those jobs and those organizations and employers that have openings."

Sneddon is confident that the WMCA will be able to find a way to provide core services to job-seekers.

"It may be more of a shared responsibility with other agencies in the region," Sneddon says.

"The services are still there – the services are critical. I can't train somebody to be a welder and send them out if they don't know how to write a resume and do an interview."

Trundy says he recognizes the Center's responsibility to provide front-end services and hopes to work with a new partner to set up a similar space in the area to continue providing outreach and assistance to job-seekers.

According to Trundy, the new CareerCenter offices will be smaller and the majority of services and trainings will need to be scheduled beforehand and conducted in groups.

"People who want to get training will come in and talk to us about it. We'll do assessments the same as we do now – we'll line them up to go to training and pay for the training that we can in the occupational clusters that are designated for us," Trundy explains.

There will, however, no longer be support staff available to help job-seekers and fewer resources to use.

The CareerCenter in Rumford will go through the same changes, Trundy says.

The change will disadvantage job-seekers, says Shannon Moxcey, the Community Concepts general assistance administrator for Paris and Norway.

Moxcey, who worked at the Community College location for eight years, says the walk-in services are invaluable for people who do not have access to the Internet at home and may be uncomfortable or unfamiliar using computers.

According to Moxcey, the Center is a popular space for people to come and ask questions and receive assistance navigating on-line job applications and on-line employment databases – its absence will be a blow.

Knowing how to apply for positions on-line is critical, Moxcey says – some businesses now require on-line applications.

"They [job-seekers] can walk from business to business on Main Street, but they couldn't apply at the Casino or Wal-Mart," she says.

Trundy agrees the Center's walk-in services are critical for some job-seekers.

"Some people coming through the door, they have a hard time with on-line applications ... more employers require on-line applications and if you can't do it, you're left out in the cold," he says.

The CareerCenter's current offices will close at the end of August. Trundy says he hopes to provide all of its services up until the last day.