For job seekers, the One-Stop Career Center in Santa Maria and Santa Barbara might hold the key to a budding career. Newly assigned to KRA Corporation on a two-and-a-half year, $2.8 million contract that begins January 2017, the two employment centers, currently run by Santa Barbara County, offer not only computer use and job information but also can tell job seekers which currently available jobs require what skills and how to make the connections needed to get employed.
The new competitive requirement for the publicly funded workforce system also has the county's Workforce Development Board, which administers the Career Centers, contracting with PathPoint for services prepping and training youth to "become better people" through learning on the job, said Raymond McDonald, executive director with Workforce Development Board. He explained that youth training helps establish a pattern of working and includes instruction on such practical matters as being on time, dressing appropriately, no texting on the cell phone: "That sort of thing," he said, laughing, "and classes to develop their leadership skills," he added. KRA and PathPoint were chosen by an independent evaluation team, McDonald said.
One of his tasks is to work with chambers of commerce and individual businesses to open doors for job seekers by finding out what the business community needs and also to communicate the skills of workers looking for jobs. Workforce Development also deploys its staff when companies have widescale layoffs, he explained, as during the Haggen grocery store bankruptcy and when groundskeepers at a polo grounds were let go.