XXI - In Step With One Stop:
Reaching Out to Employment Frontlines

Finding jobs and training may not be easy, but it is more convenient than ever. Here’s how you can find your place in the workforce of the future.

In the past, a common frustration among job seekers was the difficulty of finding quality information on available employment and training programs — and having to go from one place to another to do it. The Department of Labor and the states have found the solution — the One- Stop Career Center. The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) funds the planning and implementation of One-Stop Career Centers in all 50 states, combining employment and training services in one central location for the benefit of job seekers and businesses.

While each state's One-Stop Career Center system is designed in conjunction with local communities to best meet their particular needs, the following four principles are key to every one-stop center:

Universality — All customers have access to job placement and employment development services, including initial assessment of skills and abilities, self-help information relating to career exploration and skill requirements of various occupations, consumer report information on the performance of local education and training providers, and quality labor market information.

Customer Choice — Giving customers choices is critical to a One-Stop Career Center. Employers and job seekers have choices as to where and how they obtain information and services and have access to the information they need to make informed choices among the options they need to make informed choices among the options.

Integration — One-Stop Career Centers consolidate public employment, training and education programs, and offer them to the customer through an easy-to-use system without multiple registration.

Performance-Driven/Outcome-Based Measures — To ensure customer satisfaction, One-Stop Career Centers have clear and measurable performance goals, and consequences for failure to achieve them. One-Stop Career Centers have a proven record of helping workers find jobs and helping employers find qualified employees. In essence, these Centers broker the labor exchange. But they do a lot more, and they help everyone: students, college graduates, downsized professionals, displaced workers, career changers, people moving from welfare to work, veterans, and workers with disabilities. People can apply for unemployment benefits, register for job openings, obtain free job search assistance of countless kinds, find out about job training programs, learn more about special programs for veterans and more.

While the one-stop idea seems simple — put all employment and training services in one place to make them easy to use — further exploration shows that the one-stop concept is actually a complex system where information is key. This information system has four parts:

• America’s Job Bank (AJB) offers users the ability to post their resumes online, utilize a job scout feature, and integrate with labor market information found in America’s Career InfoNet. For employers, it provides an easily accessible pool of candidates. The job openings and resumes found here are available on Internet-accessible systems in public libraries, colleges and universities, high schools, shopping malls, and military bases. Check it out at www.ajb.org. As an added benefit, AJB and Monster.com have formed a partnership to enhance the availability of labor market information and resources, and open up even more possibilities for job hunters. Other interested parties are invited to join this partnership.
• America’s Service Locator provides customers with an easy way to find the nearest One-Stop Career Center. The user simply enters his or her zip code and describes the service sought or picks from a preestablished list of common services. Check it out at www.servicelocator.org
• America’s Career InfoNet helps people make informed career decisions. Users learn about typical wages and projected employment trends across various industries and job sectors, as well as an online library that catalogs over 4,200 career resources found on the Internet. Check it out at www.acinet.org.
• O*NET, the Occupational Information Network, is a powerful, up-to-date database to help people access information about today’s occupations. With descriptions of the work requirements, the kinds of tasks to be per-formed, and the context of the workplace, O*NET users can easily understand what skills are needed in their current job, how existing skills transfer to new jobs, and what skills are required to make the transition. Check it out at www.onetcenter.org.

Did you know?
High school graduates are more likely to go on to college today than in the past. Sixty-three percent of the year 2000 high school graduates had enrolled in college by the following fall, up from 52 percent of the class of 1970.

“Helping workers in crisis is what the Department of Labor does. Getting them back to work is our job. before anyone even started talking about how to help dislocated workers, the Department of Labor was already on the job overseeing a national network of One-Stop Career Centers where unemployed workers can register for benefits, find out who is hiring and even learn how to start their own businesses.”

— U.S. SECRETARY OF LABOR ELAINE L. CHAO

ETA provides easy links to all these sites, as well as additional information on labor markets, training programs, apprenticeship opportunities and other valuable services for job seekers and students. Just set your browser to www.doleta.gov.

Still, it’s not all high-tech. One-Stop Career Centers temper their technology with human concern, even though staff size is always limited, with Centers offering different levels of personal service according to the needs of the customer. Because of the way one-stops combine programs, the staff may work for a variety of public and private entities, including nonprofit or for-profit organizations. Despite the mix of employers, one-stop staff coordinate their efforts. This frees customers from having to wrangle with multiple agencies, each with its own set of forms to fill out. Customers need not care who employs the person helping them at a One-Stop Career Center. This “no wrong door” approach helps all customers access a wide variety of services through whatever agency they initiate a request. Only the help itself matters.

The bottom line is: One-Stop Career Centers provide an integrated array of high-quality services so that workers, job seekers and businesses can find the services they need under one roof in easy-to-reach locations. The names may differ — One-Stop Center, One-Stop Career Center, Workforce Development Center, Employment Services Center or Job Services Center — but the mission is the same: to provide prompt, courteous and customer-focused service, with a human face.

For further information, check out the One-Stop Career Center in your community by calling the Department of Labor’s toll-free number, 1-877-US2JOBS.

Did you know? Half of all persons age 35-54 participate in adult education, the majority in career- or job-related courses.

Previous

Next