SEMCA was well represented at this year’s conference. Our board members and staff conducted a total of three workshops and our Workforce Development Board (WDB) Chairman, Frank Lopez, was awarded the Volunteer of the Year award.
SEMCA EAG Board Chair Charlie Mahoney explains how the Career Counseling Facilitator Certification program came to be. (left to right) Charlie Mahoney; Dr. Halyna Bialczyk, Educational Consultant from Wayne County RESA; and John B. O’Reilly, Jr., SEMCA’s Executive Director.
They both spoke of the promising practices and projects from their respective regions and how they are striving to influence the educational priorities of their areas. At the same time that the EAG workshop was being held, SEMCA Executive Director John B. (Jack) O’Reilly, Jr. was working with Tiffany Dowling, Marketing and Public Relations Director for the Michigan Department of Career Development (MDCD); and Trenda Rusher, Executive Director of Washtenaw County Michigan Works!; to present their workshop “It’s Not as Easy as It Looks! - Marketing Workforce and Career Development”.
Career Preparation Coordinator for SEMCA, Veronica Bohannon spoke about her personal experiences in the Career Counselor Facilitator Certification class.
Trenda spoke about the latest Southeast Michigan Workforce Agencies Consortium (SEMWAC) marketing campaign. She gave detailed examples of how MWAs can pool their resources to reach a larger market, cut costs and improve quality. She showed the print ads that SEMWAC has been running in “Crain’s Business” and the promotional video piece that compliments the employer focused print ads.
The standing room only crowd left with a better understanding of how marketing can impact their local service centers and how to get the message out to our customers.
After lunch, our SEMCA team of attendees presented the workshop “Career Counseling Facilitator Certification”. Charlie Mahoney began the session by explaining the background of the program, how it was begun at Oakland University and later adopted by the SEMCA EAG and WDB as a standard for Career Counseling in our region. She also suggested that it could be a part of a credentialing system for MWA Service Centers.
Dr. Halyna Bialczyk, Educational Consultant from Wayne County RESA then explained what the vision of this program is and what it will do for the students of our region. She talked about how very few people in today’s society have traveled a straight and narrow career path. That more often than not, we stumble down different avenues, exploring new directions, backtracking and eventually stumbling upon a career. Finally, Veronica Bohannon, SEMCA Career Preparation Coordinator, spoke about her personal experience with the Career Counselor Facilitator training and how strongly she believes the program could benefit the career counselors at Michigan’s learning institutions.
For a full explanation of the Career Counselor Facilitator Certification program, please visit cdftarticle.htm.
This year’s Michigan Works Annual Conference, was a great opportunity to share information with our fellow MWAs and learn from them which initiatives and programs in their region have been successful.
(left to right) Tiffany Dowling and Jack O’Reilly, Jr. field questions during the “ It’s Not as Easy as It Looks! - Marketing Workforce and Career Development” workshop.