amela Mathews was remarkably insightful about her journey through WorkOne's services as well as the ultimate goal of individual training, education, skill-building and employment-seeking. Noting that WorkOne staffers connected with her and built a relationship, Mathews proclaimed, "You're not marginal- ized; you're building your own brand."

The efforts of WorkOne staff mem- bers on her behalf — as well as inner drive — spurred Mathews to "get the confidence" to strengthen her educa- tion and career prospects, she ex- plained June 1, 2012, at the Work- One Graduate Recognition Ceremony in South Bend.

YOUR PERSONAL BRAND EQUATES TO LEVEL OF SKILLS & COMMUNICATION

Her comments illustrated that a person's depth of training impacts their technical- and soft-skills, and her remarks cast light on a job-hunting reality: Multiple people compete for each open job and thus the process, essentially, may turn on who among the candidates has a superior personal brand of skills and is best able to communicate those abilities to a potential employer. 

BUILDING SKILLS TAKES 'HARD WORK' YET REWARD COMES IN NEW JOB, GRADUATE SAYS

For his part, Jeff Bavar described his impressions of traveling through WorkOne's services with a few choice words and a fist pump into the air. "I am overjoyed to give up my books for hammers, paint-brushes and power tools; arrroggh, arrroggh, arrroggh!" He participated in WorkOne's Workforce Acceleration Grant (WAG) program that provided up to $6,000 to be used for education in a field with potential growth in employment.

Bavar worked for more than 25 years in construction with his duties ranging from building frames to project management, he said during the WorkOne Graduate Cere- mony. Yet the impacts of economic ills in summer 2009 threw him among "masses of displaced and disillusioned workers facing uncertainty in job opportunities," he ob- served. At this point, WorkOne specialists entered the stage to counsel Bavar, help him complete requirements for the WAG program, and assist in a plan to build his technical- and soft-skills through education.

He enrolled in a building construction management technology program at Purdue University North Central in Westville, Indiana, and the WAG grant from WorkOne helped pay for the first two semesters of a four-semester program. With greater motivation than ever before, he secured other grants to help cover the third and fourth semesters. Bavar earned an associate's degree in building construction management from Purdue North Central.

"I'm here to tell you that going to college — at fifty years old — was not only a culture shock, but it took a lot of hard work, late nights of studying and even more time driving than you can imagine," he said. Yet the rewards came in the form of an on-site job interview in Texas, con- tacts with a Kansas company, a phone interview with a Detroit firm, and interviews with companies in South Bend.

The best prize came when Bavar was offered and accepted a position as maintenance director for a company in Mishawaka. "I'm grateful for the opportunity that the WAG program offered to jump-start my education, and I appreciate the support and advice of the people here at WorkOne."

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