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Georgian College offering multiple services at Edelbrock Centre

August 12, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Makayla Pereira

Georgian College and Employment Community Services in Orangeville have a world of opportunities for you at the Edelbrock Centre that all come free.

Since opening in 2013 the Edelbrock centre has been offering free services and resources to the community. 

Georgian College, in combination with Employment Community Services Ontario, has been offering a variety of ways to better your education and/or employment status as well as providing that extra help to the employers of Dufferin County.

The Edelbrock Centre is open every day from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and you do not have to be a student or alumni of Georgian to use these services or to use the resources at the Edelbrock Centre.

“Our services are free of charge. There is no questions or no ask too big or too small we’re willing to help with anything,” said Christine Quesnelle, marketing specialist for Georgian College and Employment Community Services (ECS).

Within the Edelbrock Centre Georgian and ECS have services that can help everyone in different ways. Whether you’re looking for a job or a second career, seeking post-secondary options, looking to upgrade high school course grades, or maybe you’re an employer of Dufferin, they can help you.

For employment seekers the services offered include resume writing assistance, access to computers, internet access and printing. “You can come in and update your resume on our computer and then print them all off get them ready for distribution or to get a package ready for an interview,” said Ms. Quesnelle. “We also do interview preparation, mock interviews, interview tips workshops. Job seekers can come in and get tips and tricks on what to expect in an interview, what questions are typically asked in an interview and how to best represent yourself, how to dress how to speak, try to keep things positive and relevant to the position you’re applying to.”

Ms. Quesnelle explains that they understand that job searching can be difficult and challenging for some and that is why they are there to help take the pressure off and provide guidance where or when needed. 

“Those who are experiencing barriers, whether they have some form of mental health to deal with they might just need that extra support and encouragement through that job search process because it can be overwhelming, so we offer assistance to those individuals as well.”

They have also committed to helping the employers of Dufferin County by assisting them with employee search and training of employees with the use of grants and funding.

“We offer access to training grants for employers within Dufferin County so that would be sort of like free training, Ms. Quesnelle  said. “Employers can come, fill out the applications and let us know what kind of training they’re interested in or if there is some kind of custom training we could create for their employees and it would all be covered by their grant, that grant is called the Canada Ontario Job Grant.”

The main idea for employers is knowing that the college and career services are there almost as a partner for them as they offer funding dollars to pay for training whether that be custom training programs or training that already exists through not just Georgian college but anywhere.

Within the Edelbrock Centre there is always a variety of workshops available to the community, all of which are always posted in the resource centre on the monthly calendar. They often host workshops for interview preparation, resume tips and tricks as well as an upcoming workshop which explains social media in terms of job searching.

The Georgian College career and employment community services centre has also committed to helping those who are interested in upgrading their high school marks or even receiving their high school equivalency. 

“We have a lot of great success stories here where people have come into the Edelbrock just to get some information about academic upgrading or perhaps they didn’t finish high school and they can come in and take advantage of our free upgrading program or to get their high school equivalency and then enroll in post-secondary. We’ve seen people come into the Edelbrock to use our services and then go on to pursue careers in nursing and other fields,” Ms. Quesnelle told the Citizen.

Another way the college and employment services have committed to helping the community is through second career assistance, for those who have lost their job positions due to restructuring or layoffs and don’t know what the next steps should be they are there to help. Ms. Quesnelle says that their services have been extremely helpful for those looking for a second career option.

“Anyone who is employed, seeking employment, anyone who has been part of a restructure or a layoff whose looking for more information on second career funding can come speak with us at the centre. We can also offer funding for qualified applicants so they can continue on to second career training and all of those good things.”

Georgian College has established a great relationship with employers and when they’re looking for employees they will often come to the centre first. 

“We also have a lot of exclusive job postings where employers with just come to just directly as their employment specialist, they don’t even go to indeed, they’ll come straight here and ask for employees,” explained Ms. Quesnelle.

When someone comes into the centre to work on their resumé in hopes of future employment or find out more about a local job that would be suitable for them, more often than not there will already be a position available for them to apply to.

Ms. Quesnelle says it is “always good to speak with an employment services consultant because sometimes they have a little bit of an inside scoop if they’re working with a particular employer they might have an exclusive job posting available for them.”

Georgian College is still looking for a few applicants for the Personal Support Worker program and business fundamentals program at the Orangeville Campus and more information about these programs or about upgrading your courses to be eligible for these post-secondary programs visit the Edelbrock centre.

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