Goodwill of North Georgia offers 'entry point' job training in several fields

The Goodwill of North Georgia in Athens is actively recruiting participants for its job training programs, particularly in supply chain management.

The skills obtained throughout the programs became in high demand during the pandemic and are now very popular, said Jeremy Smith, regional manager of workforce development.

While welding has been a job training option for many years, the Goodwill Career Center in Athens added the supply chain management program to fill in for the new demand for commercial drivers, supply chain logistics and dispatchers. Participants of the supply chain management program may transfer their job training into college credits for the Georgia Institute of Technology's Logistics Education and Pathways program.

Goodwill's GoodBiz! is another new program where participants get a business license, some startup supplies, business coaching and financial services. It is a current partnership with Athens-Clarke County government and potential program participants must have a viable business idea and are ready to start a business, Jenny Taylor vice president of Goodwill Career Services said.

"I love our business program because I love the spirit of entrepreneurship," Smith said. "I love seeing the originality of people who can take an idea or maybe a dream they had and seeing it go all the way through to a new business."

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Goodwill also runs job training programs such as the hospitality programs, maintenance, technology as we all as medical coding and billing."Goodwill has done a good job especially since the pandemic of being kind of nimble with the skills training programs we offer," Smith said. "But what really stands out the most is seeing the [program participants] happy that they have sustainable jobs. I see how having a job has reduced their stress and improved their mental health."

The purpose of the training is for the participants to start jobs outside of Goodwill, Taylor noted. Goodwill partners with employers to hire the right job candidates.

"The benefit of partnering from an employer perspective with an agency like Goodwill is we are going to bring candidates from diverse populations," Taylor said.

All participants of the programs are assigned a career pathways coach — a dedicated person for at least one year. The employer is also assigned a Goodwill career pathways coach to keep track of the participant's performance.

Smith said that through their career centers, they offer wrap-around services to program participants such as answering questions about lowering health insurance costs, or finding medical services for their children, registering them to vote, as well as providing a list of numerous employers who are hiring people on the spot.

Program participant Byron Mitchell completed the welding program and said that the Goodwill welding program changed his life because he’s no longer working at unreliable minimum wage jobs.

“Goodwill is a game-changer for me,” Mitchell said. “I’m now excited to go to work everyday. Everyday feels like a new day to me.”

The Goodwill in Athens supported over 1,200 participants during the fiscal year 2022, Taylor said. She also noted that over 71% of those participants are now employed.

"We're a place for people who want to be included in a way that maybe they haven't been, and to see themselves represented in industries that are particularly high wage, high demand," Taylor said. "We're the entry point for that many folks."

For more information on the training programs, go to https://goodwillng.org/putting-people-to-work/get-job-training/training-programs/

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Job training, college credit offered at Goodwill of North Georgia