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Valerie Ward
Thursday, June 30, 2011, 10 am Pacific, 11 am Mountain, Noon Central, 1 pm EST, 6 pm Zurich, 7 pm Istanbul
How Do You Know if a Job Seeker is Employment Ready?
The challenge of helping job seekers has never been greater. In a tough job market, people have to be ready to hit the ground running if they are to be successful. Employment Readiness Scale™ (ERS) data from over 120,000 clients highlight the key factors that (a) job seekers need help with, and (b) current interventions address consistently and effectively. Join us to discuss what job seekers really need help with and how best to ensure that they are successful.
Bio
Valerie G. Ward, M.A., is a career development specialist with over 30 years’ experience in developing and implementing strategies, partnerships, learning resources and tools to meet the career development and labor market adjustment needs of service providers and their clients. She is the co-developer and owner of the internet-based Employment Readiness Scale™ (ERS) now available in English, French and Spanish, which has U.S., Canadian, and Australian versions (see www.EmploymentReadiness.info for more details). In working with organizations to integrate the ERS and its underlying Employment Readiness Model into their service delivery systems, she has a particular interest in collaborating with “prototype adopters” to discover innovative uses of the tool to strengthen services and employment options within communities.
Currently the President of Valerie G. Ward Consulting Ltd. near Vancouver, BC, her previous consulting work has included the development of frameworks for building workforce capacity as well as initiatives such as:
- Overseeing development of BCWorkInfoNet (a portal providing comprehensive career and labor market information to work seekers and career planners), as well as planning and conducting a series of partnership development and strategic planning workshops for Canada WorkInfoNet and provincial WorkInfoNets.
- Co-writing a module on ethics and role boundaries for the Career Development Facilitator (CDF) curriculum with Dr. Jane Goodman.
- Leading a team planning the first BC Career Development Conference, which is now an annual event.
- Serving on the National Steering Committee to develop standards and guidelines for the practice of career development in Canada, and co-authoring the Code of Ethics.
- Working as a Senior Consultant for five years with the Canadian Career Development Foundation, advising over 20 college and university-based R & D projects ranging from career development curricula for youth to counselor training programs.
- Working for ten years in leadership roles with the Canadian federal government, including developing and facilitating implementation of the BC Women’s Employment Strategy, training and mentoring trainers and employment counselors, and developing curriculum for the award-winning Competency-Based Training Program in Employment Counseling.
Contact
Valerie G. Ward Consulting Ltd.
T: (604) 886-8905
e-mail: valeriegward@gmail.com
www.EmploymentReadiness.info
Job Readiness Exercises
Exercise 1: Matching Client Needs to Interventions (1 page)
Exercise 2: Readiness for Your Next Transition (1 page)
Exercise 3: Client Scenarios [3 documents]: Instructions (1 page), Client Scenarios (6 pages), Work Sheet (1 page)
Exercise 4: Assessing Your Agency’s Offerings (1 page)
ERS Definition and Factors (1 page)
Before we begin, here are a few instructions for listeners:
- If you have a question, press 5* on your phone.
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- If you'd like to listen to more of these tele-interviews, and your organization is not currently a subscriber, contact me with someone I can talk with about subscribing your organization so you can listen for free (except for the cost of your distance provider). Email info@ careerwell.org or call 415.312.4294.
Introduction
This is Dr. Sally Gelardin with Careerwell Tele-Interviews. The challenge of helping job seekers has never been greater. In a tough job market, people have to be ready to hit the ground running if they are to be successful. Valerie G. Ward, our speaker today, will talk about the internet-based Employment Readiness Scale (ERS). Valerie is the co-developer and owner of the ERS, now available in English, French and Spanish, which has U.S., Canadian, and Australian versions. (ERS) has collected data from over 120,000 clients that highlight the key factors that job seekers need help with, and current interventions that address these factors consistently and effectively so that we can prepare job seekers to be truly job ready. Welcome Valerie!
Interview Questions
[intro] (Slide 1)
- What is the Employment Readiness Scale™ (ERS)? (Slides 2-3)
- What do you see as some of the emerging trends in the employment service industry and how does the ERS help organizations respond to these trends? (Slide 4)
- How did the development of the ERS come about? (Slide 5)
- Tell me about the model of employment readiness underlying the scale. (Slide 6)
- What was your process of R & D for developing the ERS? Is the ERS a valid tool? (Slide 7)
- What is the value of the ERS for clients? (Slide 8)
- What is the value of the ERS for the organizations that help clients get employment ready? (Slide 9)
- What kinds of organizations use or could use the tool? (Slide 10)
- What general differences have you found among clients? (Slide 11)
- I understand that you have the ability to roll up data across clients by organization as well as by regions and countries as a whole. What have you learned about employment readiness? (Slide 12)
- What about any differences between the U.S. and Canada in job seeker readiness? (Slide 13)
- I see that 3 of the top factors are Supports – what’s that all about? (Slide 14)
- Are any particular types of clients more likely to need help with specific factors? (Slide 15)
- Based on your research, is there an optimal sequence for addressing client employment readiness factors? (Slide 16)
- I notice you didn’t include Ongoing Career Management. Why? (Slide 17)
- Is there any one factor that makes more difference than any other in clients getting successfully employed? (Slide 18)
- What have you learned in terms of program effectiveness in addressing different needs? Are there any differences between the U.S. and Canada? (Slides 19-21)
- If a clients seems ready, with a clear career direction and a good resume, isn’t that enough? (Slide 22)
- How can people learn more about the ERS? (Slide 23)
- I understand you have developed some exercises to help our listeners apply these concepts. Could you walk us through what they are? (Slide 24)
Upcoming Tele-Interviews
- 6/29 - 7/2 Preview of NCDA Conference Keynote: Mark Guterman Interview for NCDA's Career Developments
- 7/14/11 Betsy-Best Martini, Aging and Growth: A Wellness Perspective
- 7/21/11 Terry Wynne, Employee Abuse in the Workplace
- 7/28/11 Terry Weber & Sumyyah Bilal, Preview of Special Webinar: "65 Million Need Not Apply"