The IRC in Boise’s employment team has restructured our Job Class program!
We added a set of follow-up courses that expand our ten-week course covering labor laws, taxes, paychecks, budgeting skills and a basic introduction to the job application process in America. Job club adds to these topics and adapts to the individual skill level of each participant. Though some refugees are capable of learning the internet job search process, others struggle to write their name and address on a paper application. Upon enrollment in Job Club, each participant identifies which skills they want to work on, such as asking for and completing applications, keeping track of job leads, role-playing interviews, follow-up calls to employers or internet job search. They also work on activities needed to sustain employment, such as filling out time cards, calling in sick to work, interpreting paystubs or creating a monthly budget.
Job Club is coordinated by IRC Boise Employment staff, with several volunteers that work with small groups of clients divided according to language and skill level. Interested volunteers please contact Shannon Davis-Jones at Shannon.davisjones@rescue.org! The groups are assigned a particular task and provided a volunteer and interpreter, if needed, to assist with these activities. The small groups allow for more interaction and a higher teacher-to-participant ratio. We currently have two Job Club classes, one for participants that need interpreters and one for those that can communicate well-enough without.
The IRC in Boise also recently launched an employment class for high school students seeking night-time, weekend or summer work. We recruited a volunteer to teach the class during after-school hours. The volunteer engages youth with class discussions, group activities and hands-on lessons. In addition to our standard Job Class topics, the course also emphasizes college admissions and career planning, which has been a huge interest for our youth participants. While our employment team has made huge strides in revamping out educational structure, we realize there are always improvements to be made. We hope to further develop these programs to continually improve services provided to our refugee clients.
