Local volunteer Joel Fink is coordinator for Skills Central, a program co-sponsored by the Hamilton Community Foundation and the Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce to help Hamilton-area job seekers learn how to improve their skills to fill open positions. He said that many of the people the program sees are lacking basic computer skills, which are needed in order to type up a resume, search for job openings, and apply for those openings.
“The days of finding a job without those advanced skills are over,” he said. “We need to connect (people) with these resources in the neighborhood that can help them achieve those skills.”
Ohio Means Jobs Butler County has offered free computer-based courses out of their office at 4631 Dixie Hwy. in Fairfield for several years now, but just restarted them in February after a brief hiatus, according to Brittany Lowe, program outreach coordinator and Workforce Investment Act (WIA) fund supervisor.
“We started the program because we’re finding that in the companies where individuals are being laid off, they had been there for a while, and may not have received computer skills training,” she said. “It’s very important to at least have a foundation.”
A computer basics class is held the first and third Thursday of the month, and goes over the basic components and operation of a computer, she said. Other classes include basics of Microsoft Word and basics of Microsoft Excel.
Interested individuals need only be a Butler County resident and to sign up in advance on site. The resource center is a one-stop career center for employment and training needs, Lowe said.
The Lane Library offers computer literacy and job search programs to Hamilton residents and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students at their Communication Technology Center, located in downtown Hamilton at 10 Journal Square.
The courses, offered via a partnership with Ohio’s Adult Basic and Literacy Education program (ABLE), are also free and open to the public, according to the library’s public relations manager Carrie Mancuso. A full list of courses offered through the fall can be found on the Lane Library’s website, lanepl.org, and in print calendar form at the Hamilton and Fairfield branches, as well as the Community Technology Center.
The library made moves to offer more technology-oriented courses and computer-friendly resources in its branches over four years ago, Mancuso said.
“We learned, to no one’s surprise, that technology is very important in the community, so conversations came about to try and address that,” she said.
A result of those conversations, the technology center opened in October 2013, completely funded by a private donation by longtime patron Leroy Roesel. Along with computer literacy and job search courses, the center offers 20 public-use computers, an extensive catalog of installed software, including photo editing, coding and programming tools, and access to hardware, including three-dimensional printers.
Mancuso said the library has also taken measures to make their landlocked libraries in Hamilton, Fairfield, and Oxford tech-friendly by making free Wi-Fi available, providing laptops and making the furniture “plug-in friendly” with outlets when patrons bring their own devices.
The Booker T. Washington Community Center, 1140 S. Front St., began offering free computer literacy classes last year as a result of their collaboration with the Great Miami Valley YMCA.
April Hamlin, literacy director for the YMCA, said that their computer courses are geared toward “the complete computer novice,” and include computer basics, Internet basics, including how to make an online search, and email basics. Residents who take the email basics course will have their own email address set up by the end of the course.
The classes are held in four sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., although the start date is yet to be determined, Hamlin said. Interested residents can sign up at the center, and have the benefit of small classes and lots of one-on-one assistance.
“Almost all jobs need computer skills now,” Hamlin said. “And now that the GED test is now completely Internet-based, these classes will make (test-takers) comfortable before they come in to take their test.”
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