Employment workshop teaches job skills

Kauai Economic Opportunity’s employment core services program recently celebrated a Life Skills Workshop graduation. On Oct. 4, three students successfully completed the eight-session workshop.

At the ceremony, each student was presented a certificate of completion. The Life Skills Workshop is employment-based and is designed for any individual, regardless of his or her employment experience or educational level.

The workshop can be broken down into three areas.

In the first part of the workshop, each individual takes the time to explore their own backgrounds, influences and previous life experiences to get better acquainted with themselves. Students learn to recognize skills and abilities gained through past experiences and how to translate these abilities into employer-desired skills. Through “Who I Am” presentations, students gain the experience in speaking about themselves, their skills, abilities, interests, and work values, in preparation for job interviews.

In the second part, students go through job exploration, where they research various career categories and try to match their skills, abilities, personalities, interests and work values to a job that is realistic and achievable for them. Students also learn how to create goals and the steps needed to successfully complete each.

Finally, the workshop teaches students the essential skills needed for employment: filling out job applications properly, creating resumes for specific jobs and interviewing skills. In this section of the workshop, students not only learn to encounter obstacles during the employment seeking process, but also skills needed to maintain a job once it is acquired.

For more information on KEO’s Employment Core Services and or the Life Skills Workshop, call 245-4077, ext. 236.