Career enrichment programs are being offered by a partnership at Southeastern between the Southeast Louisiana Business Center (SLBC) and the Division of Extended Studies in order to benefit both businesses and their employees.

This program was made available through a $190,000 United States Department of Labor grant written by William Joubert, director of the SLBC, and Joan Gunter, assistant vice president for Extended Studies.

“William Joubert and Joan Gunter wrote the grant to cover a part of education that is lacking in Louisiana, and that is short-term training that is more in depth,” said Charlotte Collins, project manager for Extended Studies. “The employees need and want more training, and the businesses want their employees to be better trained.”

Southeastern collaborated with JoEllen Carruth of Northshore Technical College, Kiisa Corporation, Steve Pereira with Safety Associates and Sales Instructor Tiffanie Lyon to offer programs training in the areas of customer service, safety and loss prevention and sales.

“Tiffanie Lyon is very motivational and has about 20 years of experience in teaching the course,” said Collins. “Her point is that some people don’t think of themselves as sales people, but honestly, everyone sells.”

Collins discussed the progress gained by those who completed the safety program in the past.

“The company supervisors sat in with the employees and were so impressed that they scheduled another class and trained all of their supervisors,” said Collins. “Some of the employees that came in had not even finished high school and they were, of course, a little nervous, but they left hooked on education and feeling confident that they could do it.”

The career enrichment programs can also benefit those who are unemployed.

“It is advantageous for the unemployed, people who are unable to find jobs right now,” said Collins. “If they are unable to find a job at this moment, they find it helpful to at least better themselves while they are job searching.”

In addition to the career enrichment programs, Extended Studies has partnered with Workforce Investment Act (WIA) centers in each parish to offer workforce training. After taking an hour-long test, an individual will receive one of five career-ready certificates. Each certificate represents that the person has enough skill to be capable of performing a certain percentage of the jobs in that area, with the lowest certificate being 35% and the highest 99%.

“When you go to an interview with those certificates it is an objective thing – you either did really well with whatever you were learning or you didn’t,” said Collins. “They are short-term commitments because going back to college is a huge time commitment.”

Collins described the results she would like the career enrichment programs to have on their participants.

“To see everyone successfully complete the class and get their CEU’s, which has happened with everyone so far, with the exception of a few emergencies,” said Collins. “But then the next step is to see something positive happen in that person’s career – to get hired, a promotion, an increase in pay, a change in title, something because of this training.”

The dates for these programs are as follows: Advanced Customer Service (Kiisa Corporation) on Feb. 5 and 12, Customer Service (JoEllen Carruth with Northshore Technical College) on Feb. 7 and 14, Pain-Free Selling (Tiffanie Lyon) on Feb. 9 and 16, March 17 and 24 and April 14 and 21 and Safety and Loss Prevention for Supervisors and Team Leaders (Steve Pereira with Safety Associates) on March 14 and 21.

Those who successfully complete the 15-hour course will receive Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) from Southeastern. Classes are offered throughout the five Florida Parishes – St. Tammany, St. Helena, Tangipahoa, Livingston and Washington.

The programs began in August and are scheduled to finish by April, so Collins urges those who are interested to apply soon. The grant pays for everything, but applicants must meet the eligibility requirements.

“That’s the whole goal, is to impact the workforce and to elevate the skill level in Louisiana,” said Collins.

To find out more information or to register, contact Collins at 1-800-256-2771 or by e-mail at [email protected].