Check out the Standard-Examiner article here!

This enthusiastic group of about 40 YouthBuild students showed up early to participate in a much needed project for the Homeless Veterans home on Pingree Avenue. Armed with paint brushes, ladders and smiles, the group painted the exterior of the home and transformed the well-worn existing finish to a residence with amazing curb appeal.

Lindsey Johnson, a DWS WIA Youth Employment Counselor commented, “Our Youth Build kids did an amazing job, now more homeless veterans will have a nice place to sleep!  I was SO impressed! “

Sean Mathis, program coordinator and Jason Werner, onsite coordinator for the YouthBuild program, helped organize the event and invited community partners such as Quality Youth, Homeless Veterans Fellowship and the Department of Workforce Services to help with the project.

Last winter, students from the Youthbuild program replaced the flooring in the same home to make needed improvements. Community service is part of the requirements for students in the college’s program along with participating in leadership training and pursuing a high school diploma or GED.

The program is currently recruiting new students for fall classes.

And be sure to check out this great article that the Standard Examiner wrote too!

Here are the before and after pictures!

Medals will be presented at the 2013 Best of State Awards Gala on Saturday, May 11th in the Grand Ballroom of the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City. This black-tie, celebration will include dinner, live entertainment and celebrity presenters.

The Best of State Awards were created to recognize outstanding individuals, organizations and businesses in Utah. Nominations are submitted each spring and reviewed by more than 100 judges. Each nomination is judged on its own merits and against specific criteria for each category.

Former Governor, Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. stated, “Best of State recognizes those who are excelling and surpassing all else and who are the best of the best in their respective fields. Nearly two hundred categories in the arts & entertainment, community development, education, travel & tourism, manufacturing, business services, science & technology, and sports & recreation provide opportunities for business operating in Utah to participate.”

A special award was given to tech college President, Collette Mercier, as Administrator of the year.

Winners are as follows:

Job Skill Demo A

Secondary

• 1st place: Vanesa Rivera
• 2nd place: Rebecca Cardon

Post Secondary

• 1st place:  Shianne Lowe
• 2nd place: Sheila Padelsky

Masonry

Secondary

• 1st place: Bryan Stephensen
• 2nd place:  Korrun Brown
• 3rd place:  Anthony Owen

Post Secondary

• 1st place: Fernando Laguna
• 2nd place: Kyle Fairchild
• 3rd place: Miguel Maciel

Job Skill Demonstration Open 

Post Secondary

• 2nd place: Mathew Lanier

Electrical Construction Wiring

Post Secondary

• 3rd place:  Jaden Roylance

Technical Drafting

Post Secondary

• 2nd place:  Nicole Patane

Team Works:

Post Secondary

• 2nd place Team #500:
  • Chantelle Valdez (YouthBuild)
  • Kevin Powers (YouthBuild)
  • Victor Pinon (YouthBuild)
  • Sam Swenson (Electrical)

SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. SkillsUSA helps each student excel. SkillsUSA’s mission is to help its members become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens.  Students compete in local Regional and State competitions.  All first place State winners go on to compete at the National level.  SkillsUSA serves more than 300,000 students and instructors annually. The organization has 13,000 school chapters in 54 state and territorial associations. More than 14,500 instructors and administrators are professional members of SkillsUSA.

A video showcasing the appreciation of successful students featured Juana Aparcio, Medical Assistant graduate now working at Midtown Clinic, who thanked donors for giving her the opportunity to better herself as a person, a mother, and a human being.

The annual honor rolls were unveiled, recognizing all 209 donors who gave $435,825 to the college’s foundation during 2012. The contributions supported 229 scholarships , student services, program materials, and equipment. President Collette Mercier told the group that every contribution, ranging from $10 to $70,000, made a difference and was deeply appreciated by the foundation, college, and students. The honor rolls will be displayed all year outside the President’s Office in the Brent Wallis Student Services Building.

BE SURE TO VIEW THE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT HERE!

Over 2,500 people attended the 8^th annual Career Fair held in the new Health building. Employers and job seekers alike were pleased with the new venue.

“Having everyone under one roof made finding employers much easier,” said Andrew Brown, co-chair for the event. “Grouping them by industry also helped job seekers target specific employers who were looking for their specific skill set.”

Thank you to our partners, Department of Workforce Services, LDS Employment Resource Center, Standard Examiner, and OWATC Custom Fit. Advertising sponsors included, American Senior Benefits, Avalon Health Care Group, Focus Services, Marketstar, Teleperformance, The Franklin Group, The Home Depot, and Petersen, Inc.

Congratulations to our winner of the $100 Walmart gift card, Eugene  Duran, who attended the fair in hopes of finding a new job. “I haven’t got one yet, but I am hopeful,” Duran said.

The Career Fair is held annually on the first Tuesday of March. With 93% of employers planning to attend again next year, it will be another successful event for the college and the community.

Above: Eugene Duran, winner of the $100 Walmart gift card

Over 120 students competed at the tech college in the Regional SkillsUSA contest in spite of a huge snow storm that blanketed the area. Students competed in 19 events. Congratulations to our winners. Many of these students will go on to compete at the State level. Here’s a list of our students:

The tech college welcomed 47 Sports Medicine and Exercise Science students from the Weber School District to participate in a pre-education class on ACL and knee injuries in preparation for a virtual classroom experience to be held on March 12^th.

Kara Kamerath, Contingent Workforce Manager for Intermountain Healthcare stated, “We have 360 students state-wide who will be participating from 17 different high schools. Today’s focus is on Orthopedics and two other classes are scheduled in the near future in other areas. “

After class, the students toured the Health Technology building to explore career and training opportunities on campus.

The program is a cooperative project involving Weber School District, Intermountain Healthcare and Utah State Office of Education Health Sciences.

The data in these reports speaks to the value of technical education as an economic driver in our community, and the importance of completion of job placement.  The estimated annual payroll of the 1445 placed students in FY12 is $43,378,170.  This is a conservative number using the lowest entry-level wage as published by DWS.  Many tech college students start at higher wages.  This amount reflects a $12,478,644 increase in earning ability over FY11.

While the data shows the economic return on investment, it does not fully capture the other benefits that come from completion and job placement.  The personal achievement of completing, especially for first generation college graduates, is important for them and their families.  We know that education is the primary tool to stop multi-generational poverty.  In the same light, there is intrinsic value in working which benefits the entire community.

While emphasis on a completion initiative is college-wide, what happens at the individual, person-to-person level is significant. A collective dedication by faculty and staff makes the difference in encouraging students to complete programs.

Here is a summary of FY12 results compared to FY11:

Jim Taggart, V.P. for Instruction, stated, “The entire college needs to celebrate these successes.  Our continued efforts towards program completion for every student are essential.  It gives the very best possible outcome for our students, our employers and demonstrates our vital impact in the community.”

More Information

• ROI Student Outcomes Comparison
• Return on Investment
• COE Annual Reports – UCAT Campuses
• UCAT News Release

Dillon Christensen stood in line with his 2-month-old daughter Kamryn at Thursday’s job fair for displaced Hostess workers.

“I tried to find a baby sitter, but couldn’t,” said Christensen, 19, from South Ogden. “My wife went back to work from her maternity leave, so I hope we will be OK for a while. I figure we can last at least 2 months, but it sure makes it harder to pay the bills.”

Christensen was one of about 600 workers — half in Ogden and half in Salt Lake City — who lost their jobs Nov. 16, when word came that the company could not resolve strike issues and would liquidate.

The job fair, hosted by Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College, drew about 150 former Hostess workers looking for new jobs, while a dozen or more potential employers collected resumes and described the limited positions available.

Christensen had worked for nine months near the end of the bakery production line, as a sponge mixer and bread tailer. The job he lost paid about $11.75 an hour, he said.

“It’s going to make Christmas a lot harder,” Christensen said, carrying his sleeping infant in a carrier with a colorful, whimsical cover. “Everyone has already hired the workers they need for the holiday season. Finding a job now would be nice.”

Jayne DeMarco, who was accepting resumes for Lofthouse Cookies of Ogden, said she could empathize with the crowds of displaced workers.

“Years ago I relocated from New York to Utah for a job, and that company closed,” she said. “This happened to me. It’s very hard for these people, and this happened at a hard time of year.”

Other employers with booths included Kellogg’s, Federal Express, Smiths Marketplace, Costco, SOS and Manpower, Nicholas & Company bakery, Cookie Tree and the LDS Employment Agency. A Salvation Army worker pledged to include at least 75 job seekers’ gift requests on area Angel Trees.

Preston Williams, 44, had worked 23 years for Hostess.

“I heard the news at work,” the Ogden man said. “The television was on, and the news ran across the bottom of the screen. An hour later, corporate confirmed it. They told us to finish what we were doing and go home. I’m proud to say we all stayed, and we gave 100 percent to the end. I said my good-byes. We were a tight-knit group, with solid friendships.”

Williams had worked as a foreman, a production worker, in shipping and elsewhere, and is hoping to find a lead position with his next employer.

“I’ll tell you, I got more hugs than anything coming through the registration line,” Williams said. “It was great to see everyone. I don’t look at this as an end, I look at is as a new beginning.”

Steve Peterson, of Salt Lake City, made the drive north to attend the job fair.

“I was in driver sales,” said Peterson, 52, who spent nine years at Hostess. “They texted me on my route on the last day, and said, ‘Finish up, you’re done.’”

Peterson said his commercial driver’s license has been an asset. He landed a 30-day job driving for the post office, but hoped to find something more permanent.

“It’s a rough patch, but I will be all right,” he said. “There are a lot of great people here who deserve jobs, and I hope they will get them.”

Lori Russell, of Ogden, worked 18 years as an accounting clerk at Hostess’s Ogden location.

“It was a place where you went and stayed,” Russell said. “There are people in this line who have 30 years at Hostess. But this job fair was a great opportunity to come here and see each other.”

Russell said for her, the job fair felt kind of like a big family reunion.

“I only got to say goodbye to the office staff, everything happened so fast,” she said. “We in Ogden did not strike, and Salt Lake didn’t either. Our production staff worked extra hard to produce products for the bakeries in states that did go on strike. We wanted to keep our jobs.”

Russell said she has to support only herself, and she feels especially bad for the husbands and wives standing together in the job fair line.

Russell’s eyes moistened at the thought she might never see some of her work friends again.

“This is a chance to wish each other the best, and tell each other to be happy and have a good life. It’s just too bad it came to this.”

Original article by Nancy Van Valkenburg

More articles about the job fair

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=23177630&nid=148&title=job-fair-to-provide-former-hostess-workers-with-new-opportunities&s_cid=queue-16

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/55371127-79/hostess-company-ogden-utah.html.csp

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865567790/Job-fair-targets-displaced-Hostess-workers.html

http://fox13now.com/2012/11/29/laid-off-hostess-workers-attend-job-fair/