JJC’s workforce development program helps get Grundy County residents back to work

Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a five-part series on Joliet Junior College academic and career-training programs.

Joliet Junior College’s partnership with the workforce development program in Grundy County is slightly different than the program in Will County,

That’s because it’s designed to fit the Grundy County’s more rural population, according to Meg Barton, workforce development coordinator at the Morris Education Center.

The program, through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, provides grant opportunity for adults, dislocated workers and young adults ages 18 through 24 for occupational training and work-based learning, Barton said.

For instance, the “My Future Youth” scholarship program for ages 18 to 24 is similar to Will County’s “Connect to Your Future” scholarship, and the eligibility requirements are the same, Barton said.

The workforce development program aims to place eligible students in paid internships at Grundy County businesses and organizations while they work toward their high school equivalency or “[seek] to enroll in occupational training,” the JJC website said.

Although the program always is recruiting more trainees, more trainees who are not returning to their pre-pandemic careers are especially needed now, Barton said. That need is partly due to the current economy, she added.

“If you want a job, you have a job – although it may not be the preferred job,” Barton said. “When people are not struggling to find jobs and wages are increasing out of necessity, it [demand for the program] tends to slow down.”

In fact, before the pandemic, Barton reached out to employers to coordinate internships with the students in the program, she said. Now, employers are reaching out to her, asking, “Hey, do you have any interns?”

Job trainings are based on a state-wide high growth/high demand list to provide workers for those industries. Typically, those industries are transportation and health care, Barton said.

“There’s a steady stream of people wanting their CDL [license],” Barton said. “We’re always sending new CDL drivers out into the workforce. Health care has been our most popular program, but that has slowed down a bit now because there are people who don’t want to be vaccinated. So they choose a different path.”

Barton said she also is seeing a high demand for workers in manufacturing and the skilled trades: welders and machinists. It’s a misconception that a college degree is mandatory to build a career if college won’t further that goal, she said.

Instead, people should focus on the programs and skills they need to return to the workforce, Barton said.

For information, visit jjc.edu/community/workforce-development.