West Seattle scene: Expanded Ready-to-Work program gets visit from city councilmember who championed it

| High Point | West Seattle news

(WSB photos)

The city-supported Ready-to-Work program has just expanded into West Seattle, and the city councilmember who pushed for it, District 1’s Lisa Herbold, visited its local classrooms on Monday. RTW is a program overseen by the city’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, which explains that it “combines English as a Second Language classes with computer literacy instruction and case management to help immigrants gain job readiness skills and take steps toward economic self-sufficiency.”

The West Seattle classes are at Neighborhood House‘s center in High Point, now one of three locations around the city where RTW is offered. Spring classes started earlier this month. You can find out more about RTW by going here.

Seattlite April 17, 2018 (10:09 pm)

What is the name of the program for out-of-work Americans who need computer skills, vocational skills to help them find jobs and become self-sufficient?

WSB April 17, 2018 (10:35 pm)

Guess you’ve missed our calendar listings. Neighborhood House is just one of the places that feature a variety of programs:

List here: http://www.nhwa.org/lookinside/program.php?program=Employment+and+Adult+Education

Quick Google, if you are sincerely interested, reveals a variety of programs at a variety of facilities around the area, too. Here’s just one of them at South Seattle College (which as you probably know is actually in West Seattle):

http://www.southseattle.edu/programs/worker-retraining/rise.aspx

MDP April 18, 2018 (12:49 pm)

RISE is no longer accepting enrollments. Their enrollment period ended March 31st.

But, Neighborhood House, South Seattle College, and other locations are BFET providers. Depending on what you qualify for, you could enter a BFET program for additional training or a Worker Retraining program if you qualify for unemployment. There are other sites as well that can assist, and if you need help finding those, you can go into or contact a WorkSource Office for assistance in finding the right path for you to get to employment just by calling one of their centers and signing up for an appointment with a career couselor. These are called Connections or Triage Appointments, and different workers do them at each site every day.

The Goodwill of Seattle also has training classes for computer skills if you feel you are not ready to enter a computer training program. They are also a BFET provider, as well as a dozen other sites. You can learn more here: https://seattlegoodwill.org/job-training-and-education

For WorkSource Locaitons and Contacts: https://worksourcewa.com/microsite/content.aspx?appid=MGSWAOFFLOC&pagetype=simple&seo=officelocator

Source: I work at a local WorkSource, and have been helping individuals get back into employment for over 12 years. I’ve also taught at the area colleges for years in computer and business classes and there are various avenues to gain that training as well.