Workforce

SUCCESS Newsletter for Lake County Workforce Development Who’s Inside? Work Experience 1 Medical Careers 3 Trainees 4 Workforce 5 Investment Board 5 Steps to Your Next Job 6 Business Services 8 2015 vol.5 ed. 1 Lake County Workforce Development works with job seekers to assess their skills, research career options and to plan a road map to get them to their next job . Sometimes that path involves a paid work experience to help the job seeker gain new credentials and validate their newly acquired skills. Read the stories of a few recent work experience participants on the next two pages. This program is made available by the Workforce Investment Act funding provided by the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity. IT Training + Work Experience = Success When Patrice was laid off after more than 15 years working for a large cellular company, she wanted to freshen up her management and IT skills. She completed over 500 hours in business analysis, project management and Agile software at Directions Training Center. When she finished training, though, she wanted to add a new type of employment to her portfolio. Workforce Development staff coordinated a threemonth work experience for her at the Lake County Regional Planning and Development office where she worked on a project revamping their complex fee structure. In September 2014, Patrice was hired permanently as an IT Solutions Manager for Devry Education Group where she oversees technology content within their virtual lab. She is now responsible for advancing, managing and delivering various types of applications and technologies to service the needs of the student base. She says her job requires close collaboration across various functional teams. We recently caught up with four other work experience participants.