WAI Launches Job Coaching Services Program

For the past five years, the Working for America Institute has been helping unions and their leaders respond to layoffs by promoting promising re-employment strategies. In June, the Institute launched a new program, “Job Coach-ing Services,” to support the Job Coach, an interactive web-based tool designed to help workers engaged in a job search. Through individual or group sessions provided by the Institute using the Job Coach program, workers identify their skill sets and write compelling resumés targeting attractive jobs in their choice of communities. The Job Coach helps users see which jobs, other than the ones they hold, employ the skills they have developed. Once users know which jobs they qualify for, the Job Coach can show them where to find employers searching for their skills and how to present themselves and their work histories persuasively. And most importantly, with job coaching support, workers can better maintain their wages when making occupational changes. For more information on these services, contact: tburress@workingforamerica.org.

“The New Jersey Labor Employment Action Program (LEAP) is very excited about its pilot program providing Job Coach-ing Services to about 120 UAW members displaced from the General Motors plant in Linden. LEAP believes that the ability to translate job titles into specific skills, and then into targeted job searches can be very encouraging for dislocated workers.”

—Nancy Miller, Program Operator. LEAP is providing the services through the New Jersey AFL-CIO,
in cooperation with the N.J. Department of Labor and Workforce Development.