Byline: Jim Carroll
Sep. 28--West Corp. is offering computer basic training to job-hunters who need to get familiar with a keyboard and mouse.
West officials said the free, public computer instruction comes with no strings attached. But they also said they hope that those who take the training might consider applying for work at their company's call center, 2323 W. 38th St.
Lois Maranchick, West's local director of site operations, said the Erie program will be the first time West has offered a free, public computer training program at one of its sites in the United States. A similar training program was previously run at a Canadian site.
Vanessa Kenney-Clement, director of human relations at the West 38th Street call center, said, "Erie has been very good to West, and this is one way to give something back to the community."
The offer is for four hours of instruction to give new and novice computer users basic familiarity with a PC, the Windows operating system, the Microsoft Word program, and Internet Web browsers.
The instruction will be held at a classroom at West's West 38th Street center by the trainers who teach computer program skills to new workers that the company hires. Class size is limited to 24 people, and the training session for the first group is scheduled for 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Officials said other training programs will be scheduled as demand warrants. Those interested should call the human relations office at the local West center at 836-2400 to register or for more information.
About 600 people work at West's local call center, and the company officials who made the announcement Tuesday said they hope to hire 200 more people by Thanksgiving. West's Erie facility mainly handles incoming calls from people responding to television infomercials and other advertisements, but for the past two months, some of its employees have been doing database transfer work for Cingular Wireless, one of the facility's largest clients.
Kenney-Clement said she could see the need for basic computer training in the applicants the company gets.
"We see some people come in who are really struggling." She said the program will primarily help those re-entering the job market; senior citizens; or those who have previously worked in jobs that did not require computer use.
"I think this will be very valuable to the Erie community," said Tim Rowe, director of career services at the Erie Business Center, and one of the staff members from local schools and social service agencies who attended the announcement Tuesday. "It is a good start."
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