For two years, the Real Life Community School has helped those displaced from the workforce to get back on track. On Friday, another class of students was scheduled to graduate with computer skills that will hopefully get them back and working.
Bartholdi Avenue resident Wynea McCorry started her Microsoft Office classes in March, not long after losing her job during the economic downturn.
"I was a customer service manager at Equiserve for five years," said McCorry in the second floor classroom of the school, at 55 Martin Luther King Drive. The Real Life School shares a building with its sponsor, Heavenly Temple Church of God in Christ, which has been operating the program through its Community Outreach Team for two years.
"There were [job] cutbacks, and I was one of them," said McCorry. "I went to New Jersey Work Force and they asked me if I wanted to try job training."
McCorry said yes immediately, feeling fortunate that the training center was located close to her home. This has allowed her and her husband to watch their children who are out of school for the summer.
"I did have some previous computer experience, but I am trying to stay up to par," McCorry explained. "I’ve learned a number of new computer applications – Excel and Power Point."
Having picked up those and other Microsoft applications, McCorry believes, will make her marketable in the financial field, which she would like to get into. "With Excel I can do data entry and payroll and with Access, which is similar, I can do inventory."
McCorry feels the skills she has learned will be invaluable, since the job market has dried up in the past few years. "In the early 1990s," she said, "I applied at companies and you would get four to five calls back. Now the only response is from temp agencies that send you to jobs you are overqualified for. Why take a filing job when you can fill a management position?"
Another aspect of the Real Life School’s computer classes is job placement, according to Mary Lewis, program director.
Some of the non-computer services the school offers are job placement and presentation, but the emphasis remains on computer skills. Classes extend over 20 weeks and 200 hours of instruction are provided, daily from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
"We do theory of the business world, but most of work is practical application of the skills," explained George Wilson, the computer instructor. Wilson has been with the program since its start and said when the students graduate, they are Microsoft Office specialists.
"The students are instructed on how to use the Internet, such as registering online at employment web sites," Wilson said. "We also show students how to use e-mail."
Wilson added that program participants are given the basics in networking and how computers are put together.
Jersey City native Alfred Smith is another student at Real Life and has been out of the employment market for some time. Smith got word of the computer program when he heard about an essay contest.
"I entered the contest which was to write on what computers meant to me," explained Smith.
Along with referrals from New Jersey Work Force, Real Life Community School offers courses to people who want to learn about computers or upgrade their skills. Call (201) 332-2845 for more information.