Resource Guide for Chittenden County Businesses - Employment & Training Programs

Step Up for Women
We piloted Step Up in 1985 to train women for non-traditional employment opportunities that offer a true path to economic self-sufficiency. In over sixteen years of continuous programming, over 85% of participants have found employment – primarily in the skilled trades. Cited as a national model job training program, Step Up has been replicated in cities throughout the United States.

Each Step Up “semester” spans nine weeks and engages
participants in an intensive series of activities to meet the
following goals:
• Building physical strength through weight and
cardiovascular training.
• Building self-confidence.
• Developing entry-level technical skills specific to several trades.
• Developing skills and attitudes that are critical to success in work in its many forms.

Graduates go on to pursue successful careers as carpenters, automotive technicians, electricians, welders, plumbers, controls technicians, heavy equipment operators, and sheet metal fabricators.

Step IT Up
Step IT Up is a joint project of Northern New England Tradeswomen and CyberSkills/Vermont, which brings significant experience in accessible information technology training that leads directly to jobs. Each session of Step IT Up prepares 8-10 adult women of limited financial means for entry-level jobs in information technology (IT) careers in which women are persistently under-represented, that pay a livable wage and that offer significant opportunities for professional advancement. The program is modeled on Step Up for Women. Step IT Up consists of two main components: computer instruction, delivered by CyberSkills/Vermont, and Women’s Resources, the job-readiness element crucial to the success of the program, provided by NNETW. The program offers each participant 220 hours of instruction.

WomenBuild
WomenBuild consists of two full-time carpentry crews led by master level carpenters and offers paid employment to women who seek intensive training and experience in building, renovation and construction. Since 1994, WomenBuild participants have built or rehabilitated homes for low- to moderate-income families, renovated nonprofit offices, constructed bus shelters throughout Chittenden County, built garages, decks and additions, replaced siding, and more. Program partners include the Burlington and Rutland Community Land Trust, the Vermont Department of Employment and Training, the Vermont Agency of Human Services, and private funders.

From a short-term, project-driven effort, WomenBuild has evolved into a year-round, self-sustaining program. Each crew includes two slots for carpentry apprenticeships registered with the State. Crew members are also able to participate in weekly theoretical instruction.

Services available to individuals and Vermont businesses include high school transition planning, identification of career interests, job skills and learning styles, assessment of individual business needs, developing interviewing skills, designing resumes, job accommodation and modification, and ongoing consultation to employers and their employees.

Programs include:
• Adult Essential Skills (AES) and Literacy (Reading,
Writing, Math);
• English for Speakers of Other Languages classes (ESOL)
• General Educational Development (GED)/
Vermont Adult Diploma Program
• FUTURES & Getting Ready to Work, career and
life planning workshops for PATH clients.
• Bridge to College – In conjunction with CCV

VC3 also offers a nationally certified Craft Skills Assessment for journey-level workers as well as interactive training by CD-ROM. An affiliate of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce Business-Education Partnership,VC3 is a self-sustaining partnership of Vermont’s major construction trade organizations and vocational-technical centers.

Vermont Medical Transcription Education
Consortium Program (MTEC)
The Vermont MTEC Program provides a free 8-month education and training for medical transcription to unemployed and underemployed Vermonters. Successful graduates are offered full-time, work-at-home positions. To date, 81 of the 101 enrollees have been employed to date.

Vermont Information Technology Apprenticeship
Readiness Program (ITAR)
The Vermont ITAR Program provides Vermonters with the opportunity to be educated and mentored in the field of software programmer/analyst careers. Free 8-week education sessions prepare students to participate in paid apprenticeship positions with sponsoring employers.

The Vermont HITEC program models are applicable to information technology careers and companies.

VRRP provides a wide range of services to refugees including case management, cash assistance, employment, English as a Second Language training, refugee mental health and social adjustment services, interpreter and translator referral services and community education programs, through the following program • Reception and Placement Services (R&P);
• Project PROGRESS (Providing Refugees Opportunities Gained through Resources for Economic and Social Self-sufficiency);
• Project HEAL (Healthy Emotional Adjustment to Living)
• Vermont Interpreting and Translating Services (VITS).
Contact our offices in Colchester and /or Barre if you are:
• An employer interested in providing job opportunities to refugees and asylees;
• A landlord with housing available;
• A volunteer.

Phone:  (802) 655-1963
Fax:     (802) 655-4020

Phone:  (802) 479-7547
Fax:  (802) 479-7548

While most of VSAC’s 350 employees work at the agency’s offices in the Champlain Mill in Winooski, outreach counselors work from their homes to serve both young students and adults.

Visit the VSAC Resource Center or log on to www.vsac.org to browse the wealth of materials available from VSAC. Materials may be borrowed directly at the Resource Center or through inter-library loan at public libraries throughout the state.

Supported Employment
Supported Employment has given Vermonters with severe disabilities the opportunity to be employed in real jobs for competitive wages. Supported employment funds direct on and off-site support for people with severe disabilities in real, competitive work. In Vermont, the overwhelming majority of people receiving employment supports through community agencies are supported in real jobs, for competitive wages, in their own communities.