Every week, Goodwill Omaha presents free READY workshops designed to enhance your job readiness skills. The workshops are free and open to the public, and they are held from 1:00pm – 3:00pm at Heartland Workforce Solutions, 5752 Ames Avenue (in Ames Plaza, between 56th and 60th) in Omaha. To sign up, call 402-231-1978.

Here’s what we have coming up this week:

Monday, April 15: Career Development
Rare is the person who lands in their career destination in their first job. For most of us, your career is a path of growth, development and change as you gain skills and perspective on your path to a goal. Learn how to identify that goal and map your professional path to getting there.

Tuesday, April 16: Decision Making
Life is a serious of choices, some more obvious than others, but most with the potential to make a significant impact on our lives. Having choices can be liberating and empowering, but sometimes having too many choices can be paralyzing. Knowing what decisions to make comes from a combination of research, instinct and self-confidence.

Thursday, April 18: Digital Literacy
“E-mail us your resume.” “Apply online.” These days, it seems like almost everything in the job-application realm is done online. If you haven’t had an opportunity to get too familiarized with computers and the internet, it can be hard enough before you factor in how quickly things are changing! In this session, you will get up to speed on current trends in technology and how to navigate the digital world to better prepare you for your job search.

Every week, Goodwill Omaha presents free READY workshops designed to enhance your job readiness skills. The workshops are free and open to the public, and they are held from 1:00pm – 3:00pm at Heartland Workforce Solutions, 5752 Ames Avenue (in Ames Plaza, between 56th and 60th) in Omaha. To sign up, call 402-231-1978.

Here’s what we have coming up this week:

Monday April 8, 2013 – Customer Service
No matter what your job, customer service is going to come in to play at some point. Good customer service skills enhance the relationships between you and your customers, you and your coworkers and you and your superiors. In some way, we’re all serving somebody else at our jobs. When you can maximize this most important of soft skills, you can make the workplace more satisfying for everyone!

Tuesday April 9, 2013 – Conflict Resolution
We all encounter conflict at some point — what matters is how we respond to it. Are you someone who blows up and unleashes, or are you someone who can step back, examine the situation, and find a productive solution? Good conflict resolution skills determine whether an incident will be harmful or beneficial to your workplace, and it’s never too late to prepare yourself for when disagreement inevitably arises.

Thursday April 11, 2013 – Team Building
Very few people work in a vacuum. Most of us need to work as part of a team, and building a team that’s suited and prepared for the tasks ahead is a big part of accomplishing your goals! Learn how to take most advantage of every team member’s skills while also developing the group and making sure everyone is encouraged and empowered so that you can build the team you need to get the job done.

For a full schedule of workshops, visit the READY page.

If you’re looking to improve your job readiness skills in a variety of categories, the READY workshops are for you. These free sessions are held on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. at Heartland Workforce Solutions, 5752 Ames Avenue. The schedule for the next six weeks has just been posted at our READY page, but as promised yesterday, we’re sharing it here too.

Thursday, January 17, 2013 – Team Building
Monday, January 21, 2013 – Career Development
Tuesday, January 22, 2013 – Decision-Making
Thursday, January 24, 2013 – Digital Literacy
Monday, January 28, 2013 – Ethics
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 – Access Community Resources
Thursday, January 31, 2013 – Attitude
Monday, February 4, 2013 – Dependability
Tuesday, February 5, 2013 – Self-Determination
Thursday, February 7, 2013 – Motivation
Monday, February 11, 2013 – Organizational Skills
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 – Social Interaction
Thursday, February 14, 2013 – Self-Advocacy
Monday, February 18, 2013 – Money Management
Tuesday, February 19, 2013 – Stress/Anger Management
Thursday, February 21, 2013 – Time Management
Monday, February 25, 2013 – Customer Service
Tuesday, February 26, 2013 – Conflict Resolution

To sign up for any of these sessions, or if you have any questions, give us a call at 402.231.1978!

Every week, Goodwill Omaha presents free READY workshops designed to enhance your job readiness skills. The workshops are free and open to the public, and they are held from 1:00pm – 3:00pm at Heartland Workforce Solutions, 5752 Ames Avenue (in Ames Plaza, between 56th and 60th) in Omaha. To sign up, call 402-231-1978.

Here’s what we have coming up this week:

Monday January 14, 2013 – Customer Service Relationships
No matter what your job, customer service is going to come in to play at some point. Good customer service skills enhance the relationships between you and your customers, you and your coworkers and you and your superiors. In some way, we’re all serving somebody else at our jobs. When you can maximize this most important of soft skills, you can make the workplace more satisfying for everyone!

Tuesday January 15, 2013 – Conflict Resolution
We all encounter conflict at some point — what matters is how we respond to it. Are you someone who blows up and unleashes, or are you someone who can step back, examine the situation, and find a productive solution? Good conflict resolution skills determine whether an incident will be harmful or beneficial to your workplace, and it’s never too late to prepare yourself for when disagreement inevitably arises.

More than 100 board members, elected officials, staff members and other community representatives attended this morning’s Heartland Workforce Solutions grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony at 5752 Ames Avenue. HWS Executive Director Jan Kauk, Mayor Jim Suttle, Councilmember Ben Gray and Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce President and CEO David Brown were among the speakers at the ceremony.

After months of detailed planning and well over a year of conversations, the operation formerly known as “the One Stop” and then “Workforce Solutions Center” moved from its long-time home at the Blue Lion building on 24th & Lake to its new home at Ames Plaza. Now known simply as “Heartland Workforce Solutions,” the building houses everything one could find at the Blue Lion and more. Goodwill operates the center, in addition to providing adult and youth workforce services, core services assistance and READY workshops under its roof.

Tim Suelter, the Heartland Workforce Solutions career center manager, said that customer flow had become a big issue at the Blue Lion.

“A lot of direction was needed to get participants where they needed to be,” he said. Additionally, there was a lot of wasted space in the building, as partners would be crammed into small rooms when there was huge unusable space in the corridors.

“Here, we can take advantage of every square inch we have,” Suelter said. (more…)