Career and Employment Services prepares youth ages 14-24 for their futures through pre-employment training and career planning by providing individual assessment and training, workshops, and support and advocacy.

Career and Employment Services annually prepare 375 youth for the work world. Since 1978, the Alternatives’ Career and Employment Services (CES) program has been assisting young people to prepare for, obtain and retain employment and post-secondary training, as they also begin to target career goals that will move them beyond entry-level jobs.

Youth hear about the program through the agency’s youth workers and counselors, high school and community workshops, and other organizational referrals. At the time of intake, youth are pre-tested and assessed for their individualized training needs including their current skill level, employment background, motivation and self-esteem.

Skill levels are assessed through a web-based software program called Prove It! Assessments®, a standard tool used in the staffing industry. Prove It!® provides 850 tests in the areas of office/professional, healthcare, financial, accounting, legal, software, technical, and many more. After the initial assessment, staff work with participants in developing both the hard and soft skills needed in finding and retaining employment. The program’s philosophy is to focus on these two areas and if young people gain the needed skills, then job placement will follow suit.

Career & Employment Services is working with its participants to ensure they develop marketable skills that enable them to find work. As of this year, participants can choose a training track: Foundations or Web Design. These tracks are offered on a rotating basis so a participant could take the Foundations training and then Web Design.

More specific information on the training tracks are listed below:

Foundations Training Program: The Foundations Training curriculum takes place for eight weeks and focuses on the following areas: Job Readiness Skills and Computer Literacy. Additional learning opportunities will include field trips and guest speakers. Two cycles of this 8-week training take place annually and staff anticipates 40 youth will enroll in the program. Participants are in class three times a week for 2 hour sessions.

Web Design Training Program: The Web Design Training focuses on project-based learning and takes place over ten weeks. Three training cycles are offered in a year and staff anticipates 60 total participants enrolling in the training. For example, as opposed to running a web-design class focused on learning HTML, the participants tackled the question, “What is community?” and from that jumping off point, they determined their response and built a website to showcase their work. An example of this is www.WickedTruth.com where teens and young adults built a community website that highlights, in their own words, the challenges that youth face. The Web Design Training provides youth with the opportunity to gain web development, research, and team building skills.

The Technology Center serves approximately 150 youth in a year. Through structured classes as well as open access hours, during after-school hours and Saturdays, youth can sharpen their skills and use the computers for homework, checking email, and games.

Youth Working on 2007 Mapping Project

CES Brochure