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of training. “Instead of running a lot of ‘fundamentals’ courses, students are moving on to intermediate and advanced levels of training, causing our schedules to shift. We see this as a positive trend — better student retention and higher-skilled persons being trained for the professions.”
A partnership with the City of White Plains provides training to qualified individuals through a community block grant. “A young father came to our Open House in September and had a job working in the field of HVAC at Pace University promised before his training was complete in December,” she says. “This is a wonderful example of how we can make a life-changing difference in a very short time in the lives of our community members.”
Westchester-Putnam Career Center Network (www.westchesterputnam onestop.com)
The Westchester-Putnam Career Center Network is made up of four Career Centers located in White Plains, Mount Vernon, Peekskill, and Carmel. The centers are primarily staffed by Westchester County, Putnam County, and New York
“Instead of running a lot of ‘fundamentals’ courses, students are moving on to intermediate and advanced levels of training, causing our schedules to shift. We see this as a positive trend — better student retention and higher-skilled persons being trained for the professions.”
—Tracy Racicot, Director, Center for Adult & Community Services, Southern Westchester BOCES
State Department of Labor (DOL) employees. They provide free state- of-the-art technology, training, resources, and services to youth, adults, and employers. The Career Center Network also includes partner agencies that work in cooperation to provide expanded services.
“There are two pieces to what we do,” says Thom Kleiner, executive director of the Westchester-Putnam Workforce Development Board. “There is a soft-skill piece, which includes resume writing, interviewing, and a new addition, digital literacy. And then there are the nuts-and-bolts courses.”
As part of the New York State Department of Labor, the Career Center links to DOL offerings through
Coursera, an online platform with nearly 4,000 programs across high- growth industries, including data science, business, and technology. Many of these programs are pathways to professional certificates.
The Career Center Network is also working on a partnership with Job Search Academy, a collaboration between Indeed and the San Antonio Spurs. This is a free job search program “created to help equip job seekers with the skills and knowledge needed to conduct successful job searches and pursue careers that include better, more satisfying
work,” Job Search Academy says on its website. The Academy includes search engines, YouTube videos, and webinars designed to help with soft skills that improve success when looking for a job. Kleiner says that his is the first workforce board in the country teaming with this initiative. “As [the Academy is] a subsidiary of Indeed, we think it will attract more people with the Indeed name,” he says.
Local training centers Southern Westchester BOCES and Putnam/ Northern Westchester BOCES train
both high school students and adults in a variety of in-demand trades such as welding, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, and automotive. BOCES is short for “Boards of Cooperative Educational Services”
— entities created in 1948 by the New York State legislature to provide shared educational programs to school districts.
What’s Hot. What’s Next. What’s Needed. 2023 SKILLS 43
© Courtesy of SW BOCES