Some of the services available to Keokuk-area residents interested in landing a job or finding a new career will be on display this week.
The Workforce Solutions Re-engagement Center will hold an open house Wednesday afternoon from 1:00 – 3:00. The center is located in room 401 on Southeastern Community College’s Keokuk campus.
Jared Reed, Pre-Employment Training Facilitator for Iowa Works, said the center offers a little something for everyone.
“(The center) is a place for anyone within the community who needs to earn a high school equivalency, who needs to brush up on basic job skills like reading comprehension and applied math, who needs to brush up on transferable skills such as keyboarding, (or who) would like to practice for an upcoming job interview.”
Reed said the hope is to increase awareness of the center, which has only been open for a couple years.
He said the individualized services are free of charge and open to anyone.
“Even though we are located on the college campus, part of the mission of SCC is to provide access to education training and specific job training skills for anyone in the community.”
Reed said the center is heavily promoting the National Career Readiness Certificate. The certificate is designed to show an employer that a potential employee has a level of skill in areas such as math, reading and locating information.
“What happens is someone can come out to the re-engagement center (and) talk to staff about the NCRC program and get registered on the spot. We offer the testing for the NCRC twice a month here in Keokuk.”
The center offers a variety of monthly workshops including goal setting, keyboarding, dealing with criticism, and preparing for the interview. There is even an opportunity for video analysis of someone’s interview skills.
Reed said even if someone is just curious about the services, the open house provides a perfect opportunity to get their questions answered.
“We will have lots of people there, we hope to see lots of people come out. Basically this is an opportunity for us to open our doors and allow everybody from the community who would like to learn more about what we do to come in and actually visit with us.”
