Published August 2001

Center a resource
for work force

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

The Workforce Development Center on Edmonds Community College’s North Campus is a one-stop employment resource for area businesses and residents.

Through the center, which opened in April, students and residents can search job listings and access training programs, and employers have a place to call for internships and a place to go to interview potential hires.

And, by housing EdCC’s Workforce Development and Student Career and Employment Services departments, the center consolidates job placement and career training services, so people can find information in one place, said Lewis Latimer, Director of Student Career and Employment Services.

The center also works with the business community to uncover employment needs.

“We try to find an industry that is in need of employees, and we try to create a program where we can help people who need jobs — and make the linkage,” said Jenene Gibbs, Executive Director of EdCC’s Business & Technology Center, which oversees the Workforce Development Center.

For instance, the Workforce Development Department’s new Construction Pre-Employment Training program “came out of not only a current need but an anticipated need with a lot of the new construction coming up with Sound Transit,” Gibbs said.

Other Pre-Employment Training programs, designed to return unemployed individuals to the work force in a short period of time, involve the medical-office and information technology fields.

Working with the private sector and government agencies, the Workforce Development Department also offers customized training for businesses as well as on-site Workplace Basics and English as a Second Language Training.

But the center, located at 7020 196th St. SW in Lynnwood, takes training to “a whole new level” with its “soft skills” instruction, which includes help with resume writing and interviewing, Gibbs said.

For more information, call 425-640-1307 or visit the Business & Technology Center’s Web site, www.btc.edcc.edu.

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