​helping-people ​with Employment Challenges and Barriers

A physical condition or personal situation can make it hard to find and or keep a job.
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Many job seekers experience one or more barriers to employment during their careers. Although this makes finding or keeping a job more difficult, it's not impossible. Some barriers, education, transportation, child care, computer literacy, lack of access to health care, internet access, food and home insecurity are temporary and easier to address than others.

​​Common Barriers to Employment

• Age
• Criminal record
• Disabilities
• Disadvantaged background
• Domestic violence
• Drug and/or alcohol abuse
• Education
• Employer biases
• Has a child with special needs
• Housing issues or homelessness

• Job search skills
• Lacks basic employability skills
• Limited English proficiency
• Long-term welfare recipient
• Mental illness
• Needs training
• Needs child care assistance
• No high school diploma
• No transportation
• Gaps in employment

Employability skills or "soft skills" are the key to workplace success.
Employability skills are a set of skills and behaviors that are necessary for every job. Employability skills are sometimes called soft skills, foundational skills, work-readiness skills, or job-readiness skills.
Employability skills allow you to:

• communicate with coworkers
• solve problems
• understand your role within the team
• make responsible choices, and
• take charge of your own career 

Personal qualities, habits, and attitudes influence how you interact with others. Employers value employability skills because they are linked to how you get along with coworkers and customers, your job performance, and your career success.
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Essential Employability Skills

Foundational Skills

• Be organized.
• Arrive to work on time, or early.
• Be dependable.
• Have a positive attitude toward work.
• Exert high levels of effort and perseverance.
• Complete tasks on time and accurately.
• Seek out information to improve skills.
• Be flexible and adaptable.
• Complete all tasks, even if unpleasant.
• Understand dress code or uniform guidelines.
• Maintain personal hygiene.

 Interpersonal Skills

• Be friendly and polite.
• Respect supervisors and coworkers.
• Respond appropriately to customer requests.
• Ask for feedback.
• Take constructive criticism.
• Resolve conflicts calmly and appropriately.

Communication Skills

• Read and understand written materials.
• Listen, understand, and ask questions.
• Follow directions.
• Express ideas clearly when speaking or writing.
• Learn required technology and use appropriately.

Problem Solving and Critical Thinking

• Accept change.
• Be willing to start, stop, and switch duties.
• Work calmly in busy environments.
• Start tasks without prompting.
• Ask questions to solve problems do job better.

Teamwork

• Be comfortable working with people of diverse backgrounds.
• Be sensitive to other peoples' needs.
• Take responsibility for own share of work.
• Contribute to team goals.

Ethics and Legal Responsibilities

• Take responsibility for own decisions and actions.
• Understand and follow company rules and procedures.
• Be honest and trustworthy.
• Act professionally and with maturity.

Professional Skills The general employability skills above help you to get hired and to keep any job. In addition, anyone who wants to advance in their careers and people working in higher-level jobs should have the following professional skills.

Career Development

• Learn new skills and take on different projects.
• Serve on work committees.
• Take initiative and work with little supervision.
• Understand your industry and common business practices.
• Align your work goals with the mission and vision of your employer.
• Understand the different roles of coworkers.

Leadership

• Coach and mentor others.
• Be willing to take risks.
• Be able to negotiate.
• Motivate and direct people as they work.
• Demonstrate efficiency.
• Seek to simplify processes.
• Save time or money for the company by analyzing business needs.
• Build partnerships and teams with coworkers.

Long Term Unemployed
​The LTU job seekers numbers are much larger than they have been in our history and at a time where the jobs are too few for the numbers who need them. They find themselves out of work through no fault of their own. Job Search advice and strategies while similar across all groups there is very specific advice to help to this group find themselves back to work.
see web page

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​helping-Women - ​Women with employment barriers 
Single mom's, low income moms, women with no access to child care, women with no access to transportation, immigrants, minorities, shelter needs, food needs and ethnic and cultural barriers
see web page

​helping-Veterans USA
Resources in networking to help this group re-establish themselves in the job market helping to connect with organizations who help with all the various barriers that are preventing our vets from getting jobs. See web page

Millennials-helping-Millennials USA Generation Y | College Students & Grads
Recent College grads are finding the job market extremely difficult and need more career support and job search training before they hit the job search path upon graduation.
The market has changes so significantly and dramatically that many career services are not in touch with today's current marketplace and are not equipping the students with the job search education that is necessary. past two years 1.6 million have graduated and only 50% have landed jobs and of those 31% are forced to take jobs that didn't require their just earned/and not paid for College Degrees.    See web page

​​50+ Baby Boomers-helping-Boomers USA
​Baby Boomers are all 50+ now and as the previous largest generation in our countries history have always had supply and demand working against them. Today their experience and salary history prevents them from finding work in many places and their age, while not spoken can be a barrier to getting back to work. Those who can show their relevance and that have kept up with their skills and knowledge have a good chance at getting back to work but need to approach their job campaigns very differently than they were able to in the past to be successful.
​How Older Job Seekers Beat These Common Stereotypes

Latinos-helping-Latinos USA 

As a targeted networking group of the internationally successful Neighbors-helping-Neighbors USA ( www.nhnusa.org) networking group, is an all volunteer led a group of facilitator/leaders from the Hispanic community who have established themselves and are working to ​add additional skills and college degrees and credentials to allow them to advance in their careers and in the community. 

They are extremely passionate of their culture and heritage and are contributing back to their Hispanic communities through their leadership and volunteerism. 

Conducting in English Neighbors-helping-Neighbors USA meetings and building a leadership group to expand the Spanish language Vecinos ayudando a Vecinos USA to help others from their community who need help with job search and other related issues.        See web page

​Your Business Partner for Disability Inclusion
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Disability:IN is the leading nonprofit resource for business disability inclusion worldwide. Our network of over 400 corporations expands opportunities for people with disabilities across enterprises. Our central office and 25 Affiliates serve as the collective voice to effect change for people with disabilities in business.
Corporate Partners List
Organizations www.askjan.org and/or www.disabilityin.org 

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When Workforce Director in Hudson County won a Federal Grant of $500.000 to help training for re-entry population in county jail,

​​OneTen is a coalition of leading executives who are coming together to upskill, hire and advance one million Black individuals in America over the next 10 years into family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancement.

We connect employers with talent partners and leading non-profits who support development of diverse talent. By creating more equitable and inclusive workforces, we believe we can reach our full potential as a nation of united citizens.