 My name is Jessica Picard, I'm the communications manager with the Maine Department of Labor. The Maine Department of Labor can help you with a variety of employment needs such as finding a job, connecting with training, helping employers find employees, as well as helping when a job is lost through unemployment insurance, keeping people safe on the job and making sure that people have fair workplaces. If you're interested in anything you hear about today, please look us up on www.main.gov. Hi there folks, my name is Ann Smith and I represent Africans United and Project Bazear mutually supporting education for new arrivals to the state of Maine. This is the first of a series of programs that we're going to be filming at Portland Media Center and we're talking about how to go out and get a job and we were surprised when we started asking that question a lot of different places to find out that the best source of information is already right there here in the state of Maine and so my guest today is from the Bureau of Employment Services under the Department of Labor and her name is Kim Moore and she and I are going to be chatting about what kind of services they can offer you to help you find a job. Thank you. Kim. It's a pleasure to be here today. Thank you. Okay. Well, I went to the site and I was overwhelmed. I think I mentioned this when we did our before interview interview and something called Maine Career Center seems to be the place to start and then I asked you about them and it turns out there are a lot more than your websites even going to tell me. So what can you tell us about the Maine Career Centers, how they started and what they're becoming? Awesome. Sounds good. So thank you so much. It's really great to hear wonderful things about our career centers, though it's never great to hear that we're a well-kept secret. We're trying to change that. Well, I hope we help. Thank you. So career centers, which are American job centers, they're no nationwide. They provide free help to job seekers and employers and it helps them connect with career unemployment services, any kind of need that they might have to get them either to their first job, their next job, or brand new job. Okay. Can we break that down a little bit into steps? Because I think when you say it'll help you what you need to get there, my audience doesn't even know what they don't know. And I'm someone who also when I went back, after I retired from teaching, who went back to apply for other jobs, was overwhelmed by the fact that I couldn't get a job the way I used to 35 years ago, which was going into the store or calling a number from an advertisement I saw in the newspaper. Navigating a website and navigating the internet to find jobs can be very challenging. So is that something you can help me do? Absolutely. Yep. So we're really happy to be that kind of front line presence where people, they walk into our centers that they call us on the phone or a live chat, they can ask us a question like that. What's a live chat? Live chat, go on our website and a chat box pops up and you can just type in- Well, they did that. I thought it was an ad. No, it looks like a pop up, but hopefully it's a little more welcoming than a pop up. But yeah, type in your information and we can, you'll be talking to one of our career center consultants right there and you can ask all the questions you'd like to. What's this going to cost me? Absolutely nothing. All of our services and programs are at no cost to people. Why? We are very lucky to be both federally and state funded. So these are programs and services that exist either nationwide or were developed by the state of Maine. So I go on a site and it tells me that the first thing I have to do is fill up this long complicated application or I have to attach my resume. I mean, I'll be honest with you, in some ways I'm a lot like my clientele from Africa. I know just about as much about this whole job hunting thing as they do and it's part of its age. So how can you help me? Yeah, a lot of individuals who come to the career centers are looking for that kind of help. And that's one of the primary services that we provide. So you come in, you talk to one of my people one on one. We figure out where you want to start, where you want to end. Often it's, I need to apply for a job today. So we hop over to the computers because you're absolutely right. Most of the applications are going to be online today. We do have some employers who love just, you know, a slide of the resume or a really nice direct referral, but most of the jobs are going to be applied for online. So if you don't have your resume ready or if you don't feel like maybe it's what US employers are really looking for, maybe it doesn't really describe your skills and experience, we can help you with that. We can help you write or revise your resume. And then when you're ready, we not only can help you fill out that application, but we can help you attach the resume to make sure that it's complete when you set it off. Wow. And you can help me figure out what kind of jobs or careers. I've heard that word used both ways. And I went to the trouble of finding out what the difference is. Because a job is employment that you get just because you want money. Usually it doesn't have a plan for future in it. And I'm sure that when I worked briefly at a McDonald's one summer while I was going to college, I really wasn't thinking about managing a McDonald's someday. So that was a job, right? Whereas a career is something a little more ongoing. Can you help me clarify my thinking on that? Absolutely. So jobs will usually add survival to them. So there's something that, just like you said, I need it right now because I need a paycheck. So I need something to sustain me and my family. And maybe that's going to hold me over for a while. Maybe I am at working at McDonald's and my goal is to be a manager. And so that becomes part of my career pathway. Or maybe I want to change careers. Maybe I'm working at McDonald's, but really truly I want to be a carpenter. And that's really where I want to go. So then again, our conversations with individuals who, whether they want to work at McDonald's or whether they want to completely change their careers. It's our job to help them get transition to that next step and support them on that pathway. I can see where I want to go. I want to be a carpenter. But even before I get there, I'm worried that they're going to not understand me when I go and even apply for a job. There are some things that I should be doing to get ready before I even go and apply in terms of talking to people. I've been here for five years. My English is good enough, but will it be good enough for a job interview? And that's something that we work with ourselves. So we do a lot of mock interviews so we can guide and coach you on the language of a U.S. interview. But we also can work really closely with our partners over at Adult Education, other providers that can provide classes either that are really focused on learning job skills and using the language of work or that are just basic English. So we really like to make sure that we're partnering with those folks and connecting to the resources that they have. In my work with refugees, I've run into a number of young people who finished high school and got their diploma and then went right out and got some kind of a job, not really a career. And in many cases, they didn't really think about the whole idea of career until someone grabbed them and said, well, you should be going to college. I don't want to go back to school. I'd like to have a, I'd like to work at something where I can make more money than just a job at McDonald's, but I don't want to go to school anymore. How can the Career Center help me with that? So probably one of my best recommendations for that one would be Registered Apprenticeship Program. So that's where individuals, it could be in the trade, so it could be that carpenter we were talking about or an electrician, plumber, pipe fitter, but it also can be somebody who wants to work in marketing or finance or aquaculture, sort of our newest ones. So it's in lots of broad fields and it integrates both that training and learning on the job, paid learning on the job. So our Registered Apprentices are employees of the companies that they're apprentices in. They have mentors there to help coach and guide them in gaining the skills that are needed to actually work in that field. Wow, that's very exciting. Is there a very limited field? I mean, there are only a few positions open for things like that. No, if you go on the website, the Career Center website, the main apprenticeship program has probably one of our strongest pages and you can see that, gosh, I think we have about 180 or so employers that they were currently partnered with and who are, when they have positions available, they're offering registered apprenticeship opportunities. I have, well, that's something we did in Africa. You know, we had apprenticeships in Africa, but it was not at that big a scale and no central place to find out who was offering them. You usually had to contact somebody else who knew somebody else who knew somebody else. But that sounds like a good idea. What if I go there and what if there isn't an apprenticeship, though, for the field I want to go into? But I think I can do it. Is there any way I can go to school and not just be spending money that I don't have for two or three years while I get the training? Yeah, absolutely. If training is the answer, if that's what we need to start you on that career pathway, there are lots of programs that can help pay for that tuition or they can help pay for the other things that you might need to be able to go to school. So tools, equipment, steel to a boot, because you are going to be a carpenter. It can help you with things like transportation, child care, the things that might get in your way of either starting or completing that credential. OK, these career centers, where are they? So we have 13 located statewide from top to bottom of the state. But I tell you, you don't have to go to a career center to find us. We learned during the pandemic that not only could we provide our services, a lot of our services virtually, so we could use live chat. We could do zoom calls to help coach and guide and give you our best advice. We could help you over the telephone. But we also learned that we've got a lot of partners out in the community who welcome us. So we're at about 50 libraries statewide right now. So weekly, monthly, they're doing a really nice job of making sure that people know when we're going to be there. We also go to food pantries, general assistance, anywhere that welcomes us. We make sure that our outreach workers are there connecting with people because that's where they're at. How would I know that I was talking to somebody from your agency? Say if I was sitting at a GA, you know, waiting for my number to come up. We love our tables and our handouts. So you almost always see that Career Center logo with a red swoop on it. You'll probably see somebody with a badge like me that identifies them as being Department of Labor. And you'll see lots and lots of handouts and brochures. We want to make sure that you walk away with the information that you need. And the next steps. So this is the beginning of finding a job. I mean, what if it doesn't work out? Are you going to be there to help me if something happens? And I really don't like this career I chose. Absolutely. How does that work? Yeah, you walk in, simply walk in. It didn't work out. No problem. I always like to joke that if we were really doing our jobs well, we'll never see you again. But that's where I want to see you again if it just didn't work out. If it wasn't the right pathway for you, our staff want to see you come back and they want to try to help you find whatever the next best step is. Things happen. Things get in your way. And if that gets in your way, whether that's going to stop and make you pivot and go to another direction or whether it's going to just halt you for a while, we're there to help you create that next plan. My older sister had a really good job and then she got pregnant and she didn't go back to work after the baby was born because she couldn't find anybody to help her take care of the baby. You help with something like that? Sure. So if the individual wants to go back to her sister, would like to go back to work after that experience, then we can work with them to do things like, let's say training is not something that they're looking for. We can help connect them to programs and services that might help with what we call a work experience. So that's a paid experience where you we partner with an employer to give you some experience on the job. Let's say you wanted to do something in an office. You want to do something clerical, but maybe you haven't done that for seven years. This will give you an opportunity to prove yourself and to have something to put on your resume because you're going to have a pretty big gap. So we're trying to work with you to make sure that you have something to write on there. You have references and now you're gold. Now you're ready to either work at that organ or that organization or employer or to sell yourself to another one. OK. Tell me a little bit more about this. These virtual sites, are they all in English? Good question. So we are required because of our funding sources and because it's the right thing to do to provide all of our services in any language that's requested. So when you walk into our career centers, you'll see a sign that's in goodness, I don't know how many languages that will that you can point to. And will that will cue us to reach out to our language line. And that will be able to we'll be able to talk through the interpreter to make sure that we're understanding what you're looking for and how to best connect you. It seems like, though, that being able to speak English can really stop you dead in your tracks. I have a I have an uncle who was he was a doctor in in Africa and he came here and he had lots of school from there. And he just couldn't get anywhere in a job that even came close to what he was doing in Africa. Could you help someone like him? So yeah, I mean, one of the things that we really want to try to do is figure out where they are in their English. There are some fields like it where the language is actually it's the technical language. So some individuals who maybe aren't as strong in English have their occupation kind of taught them a different language or programming language. So those can be a little bit easier to translate, quite literally translate, and then to prove that you have those skills and abilities to an employer. That's right. Oh, there's a little bit harder. So health care, that one can be one of one of our more challenging ones. But what we do is try to work with individuals to figure out what's the highest level that we can get you into. So for your uncle, who was a doctor, we might work with, say, Portland education to figure out what level of English he might be starting at and figure out what that first that best first step is if he wants to stay in health care, or we can talk to him about some opportunities to use, we call them transferable skills. So lots of skills that he had to use as a doctor. There are plenty of occupations that use those skills and value those skills, and he might be very interested in. So he wouldn't feel like he had to go and learn to cook in a fast food restaurant in order to support his family. What about a physical disability? Is that is that a real challenge? Depends on what the job is that people are looking for. If a job requires a lot of physicality or a lot of you have trouble with your hands and you have. That's going to be a barrier to your work that we would make sure that we talk to you about our friends over or sister department or bureau over at the Bureau of Rehabilitative Services and they're specialized in helping individuals whose disabilities are a barrier to work. They help and coach guide support them into entering to those careers. What if I don't even know what I want to do? But my mom says if I don't get a job, she's going to kick me out and I'm 35. You're my favorite person. I love it when you walk through the door. So those are some of the most fun conversations, depending on why you're there, if your mom sent you there, then maybe you don't love seeing us, but you had to spend an hour with us, but we'll make it relatively entertaining. So we like to do some career assessments. We like to put you on a computer if that's what you want to do. And we have you say, I've never wanted to be an architect. I don't know what an architect is. I don't even want to do that. But I do like working with my hands. And so we go through some career assessments that might help point us in the right direction. And once it starts pointing us in that direction, we can talk to you about some of the opportunities and then what does that career pathway look like? Where might you want to enter? Are you interested in training? Do you want to go straight into a job and where might that connect? Are there any groups of individuals you can't help? And this is kind of a funny question. But I mean, some of us are having trouble getting permission to work in this country. Yeah, yeah. And it is true that some of our programs and services are limited to individuals who have work authorization. However, most of what I've talked about today, except unfortunately for some of the employment and training programs, we're here to help. So we're here to help you while you're waiting for your work authorization to start thinking about and training for even training for some of those occupations. Again, we're kind of a hub of activity. We know a lot. So we talk a lot with our partners and programs at adult education, the main community college system. A lot of those right now, again, things through main jobs or recovery plan funding, they're no cost. And often they don't have a requirement for work authorization. So you can get connected to training. You can get some coaching and guidance. Go to our workshops. We'll do everything that we can short of a job in order to get you ready for when you do get that work authorization. You must find this of are you fairly new at this position? I got that feeling from talking to other people. You used to do something else in Portland. Would you mind sharing that with the audience? Because some of them may recognize you. They hopefully will. I hope they do. So I used to be with the Greater Portland Workforce Initiative, which is about 21 different programs and services in Greater Portland, who were doing exactly this, trying to make sure that we were all working together without anybody noticing that we had to work together really, really seamlessly. So nobody could see what we were doing behind the scenes, but really trying to make sure that we were supporting individuals like immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers to get to the places they wanted to get. So I've been around the block for a while. You said at the beginning that it bothered you that I said this was a best kept secret. I am connected with a number of nonprofits and foundations and including the Greater Portland Welcoming Center. I'm not sure. I've seen anything from your career center up in there. So I'm going up. Thank you. Are you connected with Reza? Yes. We actually we actually have just hired one of his close friends, Tarlan Ovidolf, who used to. Oh, I know Tarlan Ovidolf. Yes. He's a very wonderful person. So yes, we do partner with the Immigrant Welcome Center. Hopefully our materials are in there. And if they're not, I haven't been in for a while. So it's possible. It's possible. No problem at all. Well, Kim, I hope you're enjoying your position here. And I know you come to it equipped with a lot of information from your career in Portland. We may be contacting you again if there's a detail that we think we've overlooked. But all of this information is going to be made available through the through this program. We're going to be putting the how to contact main career centers up frequently. And I know I'm going to feel more informed when I talk to the refugees and newcomers that I work with. So thank you very much and so long for now.