Title of Practice: Landscape
Industry Training Program
College: Mission College
College Contact:
Christina Oborn,
Interim Dean, JDIF Program Coordinator
Sponsored Research and Grants, West Valley-Mission Community College
District
14000 Fruitvale Avenue, Saratoga, CA 95070-5698
(408) 741-2095
Christina_oborn@wvmccd.cc.ca.us
Target Population:
LEP & Economically
Disadvantaged
Goals:
Target an industry
where the employees or prospective employees have language and skill
barriers to hiring. The grant set out to work with employers and
employees to insure that those needing employment can effectively
enter the workforce and incumbent workers can move up the career
ladder.
The idea for the grant came out of work done via a contract with the
county jail to teach minimum security inmates landscape maintenance.
While looking for companies to hire the trained inmates upon
release, a gap in trained employees was identified. Additionally,
there were a large number of Spanish speaking employees who did not
have the technical skills or the language ability to advance to
foreman, team lead, or account manager.
Description:
There are two
levels of training. The first is for employees who have no
experience and little English language ability. The second is for
incumbent workers to enable them to move up the career ladder
effectively. A final piece of the grant was the development of a
resource directory for services and courses around Santa Clara and
San Mateo Counties.
1. Entry level training — The entry level course is 5-6
weeks long at Mission college taught by horticulture professionals.
The course covers the safe use and care of power tools, pruning,
pesticide application, CPR, and industry specific vocational ESL.
The course includes field trips to nurseries as well as hands-on
work on the campus. At the end of the course there is an employment
assistance component, with most leads coming from the industry
itself.
2. Incumbent Workers – The second course includes additional
training in pruning (24 hours), installation and maintenance of
irrigation systems (24 hours), the development of supervisory skills
(8 hours), continued vocational ESL (30 hours), command Spanish (18
– 24 hours), and Train-the Trainer (8 hours).
To date, there have been 3 entry level classes with approximately 20
students per class. Additionally, there have been two incumbent
worker classes with approximately 10 in each course. Each class
costs $25.00 per person.
Staffing:
There is a part
time Director , part time Project Coordinator and full time Program
Assistant.
Facilities, equipment, materials:
Gardening and landscape maintenance tools, tool shed
Practice sites on campus
Compiled binder of materials covering safety regulations, use and
care of hand and power tools, landscaping techniques, etc. All
materials are in English.
The grant also purchased for each student boots, jeans, gloves, ear
plugs, safety goggles, helmets, and work t-shirts.
Costs, funding source:
The CCCCO Job Development Incentive Fund Grant ended September 2006.
They received $597,000 total for two years.
Outreach and marketing:
1. Advertising in Local papers. The San Jose Mercury News was
effective and yielded serious students. Ads in the “throw-away”
papers and Penny Saver paper were less effective. 2. Outreach
through Community Based Organizations (such as Good Will, the
Workforce Investment Board, One Stop Centers, Adult Schools, and the
San Jose job corps) was effective.
Evidence of effectiveness:
All participants have been placed in jobs.
Suggestions for replication:
Be aware that it may be difficult to keep the incumbent workers in
the classes as many of them got jobs during the course of the class
and quit.