PHONE FIRM GIVES TO CAREER CENTER

Hands-on training and improved job opportunities will be available to welfare recipients when a new customer service training program gets under way in Cape Girardeau in the fall.

The Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center received a $25,000 check Wednesday from the Southwestern Bell Foundation to help establish a call center complete with telephones, computers and monitoring stations. The money will be used as a local match for a $75,000 award received from the state education department.

Jan Newton, president of Southwestern Bell-Missouri, said funding the training program was in line with her company's goal to help communities meet needs in the areas of education, economic development and technology.

"Call centers are a growing dynamic in all sorts of industries," she said. "Sometimes, smaller communities have the advantage because they don't face the long commute time to get folks in for training, and they provide a qualified stream of talent into the professional community."

John Mehner, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, said the program will feed well-trained people into an under-supplied labor market.

Closing labor gap

"Because the Cape area is a regional retail, service, education, health care and manufacturing center, there is always a demand for qualified customer service representatives," he said. "The demand always exceeds the available labor pool. This training program will help close the gap."

Former career center adult supervisor Bev Hickam, who was instrumental in developing the call center, said the program fits in with the desire of social and government workers for training schedules that move welfare recipients into employment quickly.

"They're very interested in short-term training programs for their clients, so this is going to be a good fit," said Hickam.

Students who successfully complete the four- to six-week program will be eligible for immediate job placement.

The realistic training lab and a one-week internship will ensure students have a good understanding of how their work environment will look.

Career center staff will follow-up with graduates after they are employed, "to help enhance their long-term success," said director Harold Tilley..