Southern California Afterschool Workforce Development
Why Workforce Development?
Staffing Challenge | Employers | Community Colleges | WIBs
Project Overviews
LA Scholars | Las Guias | CalWIN
Workforce Development Projects
Since 2004, CalSAC has developed strategies to increase the pipeline
of qualified part-time, entry-level workers into the afterschool field. These workforce
development strategies bring highly qualified staff
into the field and provide the supports they need to
succeed on the job.
Given the high rates of turnover of part-time staff in this field, CalSAC's theory is to:
1. Develop systems that identify and recruit job seekers
who want part-time employment working with children and youth.
2. Prepare them with pre-employment training that covers basic skills for working
with youth afterschool as well as general work readiness
skills.
3. Match the job seekers with local afterschool employers
to facilitate the hiring process.
4. Provide job coaching to those participants once they
start working.
To an increasing extent over the past two years, CalSAC
has sought to add a crucial fifth step to this basic
model:
5. Link this training, employment, and coaching program
to formal certificate and/or degree programs in the California community college
and California State University systems, in order
to
present afterschool employment as an integral part
of a full educational and career pathway.
Participants typically earn stipends for attending
the pre-employment training and job coaching. All training
and job coaching is conducted in a cohort-model which creates a learning community for the participants.
Additional individual coaching is also typically offered
once they are employed and as budgets allow.
Southern California is a region in which these workforce
development projects are highly needed and CalSAC's burgeoning work in this area has been highly promising.
See the links above to read more about CalSAC's workforce projects in Southern California.
