READY FOR RETAIL
Goodwill, CVS Health partner to build local retail- skills lab
Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania celebrated the opening of a new “retailskills lab” Wednesday aimed at providing disadvantaged community members with the tools to gain stable employment.
The skills lab is the product of a collaboration with CVS Health, which has sponsored dozens of similar training labs across the country for aspiring retail and pharmacy workers in collaboration with various state and local agencies.
“Our goal is to really find those folks who are sitting below the radar,” said Ernest Dupont, CVS’s senior director of workforce initiative. “What we’ve seen is that a lot of people are able to not just be successful at getting a job, but become successful with a career.”
At Goodwill’s Lawrenceville facility, a nondescript second- floor hallway leads to a door that one might assume opens to a small classroom or storage closet. Inside is a room that holds all of the trappings of a real CVS drugstore: aisles of toiletries and other household goods, a checkout station with a cash register and rows of tote bags to collect store items.
The entire project, including planning and renovations, took roughly a year, according to David J. Tobiczyk, vice president of marketing and development at Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania. The overhauled adult education classroom includes thousands of dollars in retail equipment donated by CVS, Mr. Tobiczyk said.
A mock retail environment allows for a hands- on learning experience, said Sean
Ware, the instructor of the two- week training courses, each of which will enroll between four and six students.
Mr. Ware said the first week of the program will involve instruction in basic retail skills, such as how to interpret product labels, process transactions, interact with customers and identify shoplifters.
The following week will provide real- world training at a local CVS or Goodwill store. Those who successfully complete the program will have the option of receiving a certification from the National Retail Federation Foundation.
“We have nothing like this is Pittsburgh,” said John White, workplace initiatives adviser for CVS.
Goodwill will promote the courses to the public through targeted advertising, referral services and by suggesting them to certain job seekers who come into the Lawrenceville facility looking for assistance in finding employment.
Mike Smith, president and CEO of Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania, said the skills labs is Goodwill’s first collaboration with CVS, but he hopes there will be more to come.
“When we can partner with someone like CVS, who has a national reach like us, it’s just a perfect partnership,” he said.