Contact: Ann Hatch
214-378-1819;
ahatch@dcccd.edu
For immediate release — Nov. 5, 2015
(DALLAS) — Graduating from college means finding a job and building a new career. That’s what Dallas County Community College District students have in mind when they finish an associate degree or a professional certificate and make plans to enter the workforce.
Nationally, only 14% of all college seniors and 13% of those college seniors who graduated in 2015 actually had a job lined up after they crossed the stage, according to Aftercollege.com. That means at least 85% of those college students who finished school were looking for work in their field. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area alone, approximately 70% of middle-skills jobs continue to go unfilled. Finding them is the key.
DCCCD has decided to partner with TCC Learning LLC to provide The Careers College, a new online job search training program, to help solve that need. The program bridges the “soft skills” gap between employers who want to hire a qualified workforce with college graduates who are looking for jobs.
“DCCCD is proud to be one of the first community colleges in the country to offer The Careers College to our students,” said Mark Hays, the district’s vice chancellor for workforce and economic development. “Thousands of middle-skills job opportunities are available in North Texas, and we see this program as an essential part of our efforts to bridge the soft skills gap and prepare students for the job search process.”
Hays added, “Student success is our top priority, and The Careers College is a new tool that they can use to start their professional lives and earn a good, living wage.”
Todd Bermont, founder of The Careers College and TCC Learning LLC, explained that his online job search training and career center bridges soft skills and technical skills as it helps employers and college graduates connect needs and skills to build today’s workforce.
“Students don’t lack potential,” Bermont said. “Instead, they lack formal training on communicating their strengths to prospective employers so that they can successfully integrate into the workforce.”
The Careers College, said Bermont, contains nine core interactive learning modules; each trains students on key soft skills that are required to succeed in their job search and career development. Those modules are: “Building Confidence”; “Exploring Career Options” (defining the ideal job); “Marketing Skills” (resumés, cover letters, social media and more); “Conducting the Job Search”; “Preparing for Job Interviews”; “Interviewing to Win”; “Following Up”; “Negotiating the Best Deal”; and “Starting Right on the New Job.”
To date, more than 15 colleges, universities and libraries in the U.S. offer The Careers College to their students and patrons, according to Bermont. “TCC Learning LLC’s mission is to provide motivated students and job seekers with the education, tools and resources they need to land their ideal job,” he added.
For more information, contact DCCCD’s Mark Hays by email at
mhays@dcccd.edu or by phone at 214-378-1821; or contact Todd Bermont, TCC Learning LLC, by email at
tbermont@thecareerscollege.com or by phone at 832-340-7005.
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