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Core Curriculum
Every lesson is designed to give employment professionals the knowledge, skills, and values that will help them thrive in their field. Our innovative and engaging approach to training includes multimedia components supporting a practical, problem-based learning structure.
The curriculum is offered as a package, so you and your staff will have full access to every lesson throughout the year.
Course 1: Strategies for Effective Job Development — Part 1
This course will show you how to develop a plan to help people find jobs. Topics include giving advice on disclosure and matching individuals’ desires and abilities with career opportunities. The course also includes guidance on the latest job-search and marketing techniques, including creating marketing materials, taking advantage of social media, and networking (both in person and online).
- Lesson 1: Disclosure, Resumes, and Interviewing
- Lesson 2: Matching Job-Seeker Skills to Jobs
- Lesson 3: Marketing Materials for Job Development
- Lesson 4: Using Social Media to Market Job Seekers
Course 2: Strategies for Effective Job Development — Part 2
Job seekers are your customers — but so are the employers who can hire them. This course will explain the importance of understanding and responding to employers’ needs, and matching them to job seekers’ skills and interests. You’ll learn how to show employers that working with your agency is a win-win proposition. Topics include solving business problems, developing mutual confidence and trust with employers, supporting job seekers with online job applications, and negotiating hiring arrangements.
- Lesson 1: Employer as the Customer
- Lesson 2: Identifying Employer Needs
- Lesson 3: Online Applications and Personality Tests
- Lesson 4: Negotiating the Hire, Including Accommodations
Course 3: Principles of Career Development
In this course, you’ll learn the most effective ways to use individual assessments and other planning strategies. These techniques can help job seekers focus on their skills and interests and get clearer about what various careers involve. You’ll find out about key strategies to help people overcome barriers to employment. This course also covers the relationship between disability benefits and employment, and how beneficiaries can make the most of work incentives.
- Lesson 1: Everyone Can Work
- Lesson 2: Person-Centered Career Planning
- Lesson 3: Assisting with Barriers to Career Development
- Lesson 4: Tools and Assessment Strategies for Career Discovery
- Lesson 5: Using Conventional Approaches for Career Planning
- Lesson 6: Earnings, Benefits, and Career Choice
Course 4: Foundations of Employment Services
This course explains how you can support all individuals in pursuing meaningful, rewarding work, including people with disabilities and other barriers. You’ll learn about the history of employment services as a profession, the key duties of your job, and the core competencies you’ll need to do your job well. In addition, this course will provide you with a solid ethical foundation on which to build your career.
- Lesson 1: Evolution of Employment Services
- Lesson 2: Values and Expectations of Work
- Lesson 3: The Employment-Services Professional
- Lesson 4: Partners in Employment Services
- Lesson 5: Funding Employment Services
Upcoming Courses
The College of Employment Services will continue to roll out new content, with a new course offered approximately every three months.
Course 5: Strategies for Job Coaching and Support (Part 1 and 2)
This course will address how you can work with job seekers to help ensure a successful employment experience, and their employers to support new hires with disabilities and other challenges on the job. Topics include developing soft skills, creating support plans, facilitating natural supports, acquiring and maintaining skills, emergency preparedness, and fading supports from the job site as the worker gains independence.
Course 6: Understanding the Employer Voice in Job Seeking and Job Development
You’re focused on supplying workplaces with qualified job seekers, but what about the employer perspective? This course goes in-depth into the “dual-customer” approach to career development. You’ll learn about the functional use of labor-market information for the modern economy, using research to learn about employers’ experiences and workforce development strategies, strategies for working with small and large employers, engaging in community and business networking, and collaborating creatively with employers and job seekers to make strong job matches.