Workforce Snohomish County

 

Ton Nguyen with Workforce Snohomish spoke to the club.  Ton immigrated from Vietnam as a child.  After he graduated from high school he started working at a youth center in West Seattle.  Ton has been with Workforce for over a year now.  He hopes to use his role to create change.  Workforce is a quasi governmental agency with funding from a federal grant and private funding.  Ton works on the federal side.  He contracts service providers and has access to the “youth dollars”.  Ton works to develop programs to better prepare young adults for their careers. 

 

Workforce serves ages 16-24.  If they are out of school they serve ages 14-24.  The work readiness program assigns case managers to each student.  They can assist in getting students back in high school, getting their GED or finding employment.  They are also able to help them get bus cards, interview clothing, and connected to other services.

 

Every Tuesday, they bring in companies and professionals that speak to the youth about their careers and pathways.  They also host job fairs and the center for Human Services puts on workshops. 

Youthworks is a website program to search internships, jobs, and mentor programs.  It is a supported by the governor’s discretionary funding.  www. snocoyouthworks.com. Last year 53 students got their GED, 105 students were placed into employment, and 39 participated in 90 hour paid internships.

 

Workforce is looking for local businesses that will be on an advisory council and also take on interns, mentees, and young employees.  Workforce has funding to pay employers up to 90 hours of an intern’s time. Workforce provides a one week “soft skills” training to teach the students how to dress, stay sober, show up on time, etc.

 

Workforce is partnering with Weston High School and are in the school weekly.