Jobs Caledon - highlighting opportunities with the OPP

Written By JULIA LLOYD

Last Thursday, Caledon Community services (CCS) hosted a presentation by Provincial Constable (PC) Marylou Schwindt for people registered with Jobs Caledon. 

Jobs Caledon is a program run by CCS that offers the business community many resources such as, job matching, placement, training, grants and wage incentives. 

The funding for Jobs Caledon presently comes from Employment Ontario, as well as the provincial government. 

“Anyone that is looking for work, whether it's because they are unemployed or are unhappy with their work. We can see them and we have workshops that are geared towards looking for work, including interviewing skills and resume building,” explained Maureen Tymkow, Employment Specialist at CCS. 

Tymkow has worked for CCS since 2000 but said this program was implemented years before she started. 

One of the services Jobs Caledon provides is it puts on multiple presentations highlighting potential careers in a variety of sectors. These presentations usually include an overview of the career itself and the steps needed to take in order to get a career in the specific field being presented on. 

On August 8 (last Thursday) CCS invited PC Schwindt to talk about the application process for applying to the OPP, pre-requisites, and expectations of an application with an overview of how to prepare for each stage of the recruitment process. 

CCS held two presentations for two separate groups of registered members of Jobs Caledon.  The first presentation was held at 9:30 a.m. and went until 11 a.m. and the second presentation started at 1:30 p.m., located at the CCS building in the heart of downtown Bolton. 

During the morning presentation, every seat was taken and the room was full. Tymkow said this is one of the biggest presentations they have had. 

“A lot of people seem interested in jobs with the provincial police force and the afternoon presentation will be just as packed,” said Tymkow. 

For presentations Tymkow said CCS tried to get as many guest speakers as possible. The day before the OPP presentation, Amazon came to the centre and did two workshops that gave people information about what Amazon is all about and what type of employees they are currently looking for. 

The CCS building offers a resource centre with computers that are available for people registered with Jobs Caledon. As well, anyone who is registered with Jobs Caledon can take advantage of all the workshops offered. 

To register for Jobs Caledon, you can go right into the CCS building during hours of operation and no appointment is necessary. 

“Clients who are no longer working or working under 20 hours a week and are not going to school, and if you qualify, CCS provides a one-on-one job coach,” said Tymkow. “A lot of times the support is motivational and self-esteem issues because loosing a job sometimes can really hit you.”

Another program offered by CCS is second career, which is only offered for people who were laid off. It offers up to $10,000 in tuition that can be used for college up to two years, which offers community members a second chance to study something that will actually land them a job. 

The third program that CCS offers within Jobs Caledon is job matching and job development. 

“So the way I explained it to my clients is if you feel really confident in your resume and interview skills, then make an appointment to go see our job developer and she would then ask a bunch of different questions,” said Tymkow. “Some of the questions ask what jobs you're interested in, what are your skills, that kind of thing.” 

Tymkow says that once the individual answers all the questions, the job developer will actually go out and see if anywhere has a job available .

For this program the government offers a subsidy to the employers for hiring employees getting help through Jobs Caledon, according to Tymkow. As well, CCS offers an online “Job Bank.” 

“They can sign up for the service, and it is completely free. You can go to CCS, go under programs and under job bank it shows all the different jobs that have been posted. You can send your resume online and apply online for any of the jobs posted.”