Disabled job-seekers gain skills and certification

Chad Creager trained 45-year-old Marc Moorvitch how to safely use a Tennant auto scrubber for cleaning floors.

"He's a fast learner," said the manager of employment services at Opportunity Partners, a Minnetonka-based nonprofit organization that helps people with disabilities live, learn and work as independently as possible.

In the past, Moorvitch's training with the industrial machine wouldn't have gained him a formal job certification.

But in a collaboration between Opportunity Partners and Dunwoody College of Technology, participants like Moorvitch will be trained using Dunwoody curricula and gain certification for jobs at the same time, while ensuring that their skills training meets the specific needs of employers and industry standards.

Mike Anderson, director of custom training at Dunwoody, said the partnership works because Opportunity Partners and Dunwoody are "two similar organizations that improve life for individuals."

Opportunity Partners would like to enroll 75 students in the program, which will begin next spring. Staff is to be trained by early 2010.

Julie McConaha, assistant director of learning and development at Opportunity Partners, said that between last February and May, staff at Opportunity Partners and Dunwoody determined that participant training must focus on skills the workers need to meet employer requirements. That will give participants a better chance of being placed in a job.

"We want to see an employer who can have an employee that is finely trained," he said.

Thompson said Opportunity Partners projects it needs to raise a minimum of $200,000 per year for the next three years for the program.

The curriculum will include four "learning platforms" where training incrementally tackles more difficult skills. Individuals will have the opportunity to learn each track within a platform, which will work like chapters in a book. With each task in a track, a checklist of required steps is taught to the student.

The courses don't include lectures or homework. Lessons will focus on applied learning, Anderson said.

Participants will practice skills until they are able to pass the requirements on their own. "Practice learning is important for people with intellectual disabilities," Thompson said.

No matter what level a student reaches, he or she will receive certification from Dunwoody, which to Thompson is a golden ticket to gaining employment.