Tri-Valley Career Center, Other Services Move to Hacienda

Recently the Economic Development and Contract Education (EDCE) department of the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District (CLPCCD) relocated from Dublin to Hacienda. EDCE is part of the District, which includes Las Positas College in Livermore and Chabot College in Hayward. EDCE serves primarily adults and non-traditional college students across hundreds of professional fields and levels of employment. The department provides apprenticeship opportunities, workforce training, career guidance, child welfare programs, and fiscal agency services to individuals, companies, and organizations throughout the state.

CLPCCD defines its mission as offering "innovative educational opportunities and support services to prepare students to succeed in a diverse global society by challenging them to think critically, to engage socially, and to acquire workplace knowledge and educational skills." The Economic Development and Contract Education department defines its mission as empowering "individuals and communities to thrive by creating career, education, and economic opportunities."

"We really believe in our mission and focus our work on contributing to the success of the people and organizations we serve," says Julia A. Dozier, M.Ed., District Executive Director of EDCE. "Customer service–literally, serving our customers, clients, and students–guides all that we do. That, plus the fact that we move at the speed of business, not the speed of education or other bureaucracies, makes us stand out."

The move to Hacienda allowed EDCE to consolidate its offerings, including fiscal agency services, the Tri-Valley Career Center, and the OSHA Training Institute Education Center. EDCE hosts one of only 26 authorized OSHA Training Institute Education Centers in the country, offering federal and California OSHA safety classes as well as other occupational safety and health training.

Last year, "Covid-19 caused the shut-down of our physical facilities, leaving students and customers without the safety, educational, and support services offered by our organization," notes Dozier. "Within just a few weeks the OSHA Training Institute Education Center was able to pivot courses to a virtual delivery system, quickly followed by the Tri-Valley Career Center's career development workshops. We took what seemed like an impossible situation and found alternative ways to continue supporting our customers and our communities."

Today, training takes place both online and in its new facilities at Hacienda, where the department has a staff of 25 supporting EDCE's work. Last year alone, the Tri-Valley Career Center, a free service that helps connect people with employment opportunities, served over 1,100 clients. The average hourly rate for new jobs was $34.17. The OSHA Training Institute Education Center ranked fourth in the country for number of students served, and it distributed to the workforce over 22,000 OSHA 10- and 30-hour cards, which are required by many trades and companies for continued employment. EDCE also has contracts with seven counties in Northern California and delivered training to over 52,000 people who serve foster children. The department offered apprenticeships in 11 different trades and served over 1,500 apprentices. Its fiscal agency managed $140 million in contracts.

Before the move, "we were scattered amongst three different locations," says Dozier. "I wanted to bring everyone and all of our offerings together in one place, as a means for the staff to work together across the different areas of focus but also to give us more space to grow." Others can benefit from the move as well: The "beautiful" new classrooms and conference rooms at Hacienda are available to rent, complete with state-of-the-art A/V and teleconferencing equipment, according to Dozier.

EDCE has ongoing educational and community support programs scheduled throughout the year. These include opportunities for workplace safety training, job fairs, free tax preparation services, and more. For more information about programs offered by the Economic Development and Contract Education department of Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, please see the websites below.

For the Tri-Valley Career Center, please visit www.trivalleycareercenter.org.

For the OSHA Training Institute Education Center, please visit osha4you.com.

For Child Welfare/Foster Care Training, please visit fostercaretraining.org.

For information about Apprenticeships, please visit apprenticeship4you.com.

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