Job skills online at your local library
While she’s in between accounting jobs, Leslie Fong is working to enhance her Excel skills through advanced online classes at the South San Francisco library.
“They are stellar,” she said about the library. “I’ve never gone to a place with so many free offerings of classes. They are my salvation.”
Libraries have long helped job hunters as part of their mission as community hubs linking people to essential services and resources.
Now the state’s libraries are adding a broad array of free software to help patrons learn new vocational and academic skills, earn professional certificates, and prepare for in-demand jobs. This comes at a crucial time as workers returning from pandemic layoffs seek new positions, 1.4 million Californians are unemployed and 4.8 million are “functionally unemployed,” meaning they do not have stable jobs paying above the poverty level, according to a new study.
With a $4.4 million grant from the American Rescue Plan Act, California created a program called CAreer Pathways to give library
patrons free access to thousands of online classes from six providers: Coursera, GetSetUp, LearningExpress, LinkedIn Learning, Northstar and Skillshare.
Classes run the gamut from Salesforce certification to how to use a mouse to launching a business.
“I’ve never seen any library have offerings with such a wide range,” said Stacy Lein, adult services librarian at the South San Francisco public library. She started using Coursera to study music theory for her own enrichment.
She’s gung-ho on promoting it so
“The most value is to help someone find the needle they want in the information haystack.” Greg Lucas, state librarian
people will realize the new wealth of resources available. Now when librarians see patrons working on their resumes, “That’s when you say, ‘Oh, by the way, did you know we have this opportunity for the public?’ ” she said.
Most courses are available in multiple languages. People can take them from their own computers or can use those at their local branches.
“The principal audience is women who dropped out of the workforce (because) there’s no child care,” said Greg Lucas, state librarian. “The easiest, most convenient way to reach that audience is with online products that they can access at home.”
But there are lots of other potential users as well. “If you have a cognitively or physically repetitive job, think about what you want to do next, sooner rather than later,” Lucas said. “This helps people do that; it meets them where they live.”
Out of California’s 184 library jurisdictions (ranging from a single library in Modoc County to 88 in Los Angeles County), 172 will offer the program, Lucas said.
Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Mountain View’s Coursera, said its technology certificate programs are authorized by companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Salesforce, IBM and Intuit, making them direct pipelines to landing employment.
“These courses (have) a more job-relative sensitivity: What does it take to get a certain job; what skills are required,” he said. For instance, “there’s a big demand for IT (information technology) support professionals and not enough people with skills to do it. You don’t need a B.A. It pays well and can be done remotely. It’s a really attractive job that’s accessible to people if they have access to skills development.”
Most Coursera certificate programs consist of four or five courses. On average a certificate takes about five months to complete, but people who put in more hours a week can do it in as little as a month, he said. The certificate programs ordinarily cost $49 a month. Coursera’s courses are self-paced and ondemand, although live support is available from peers in discussion groups, and it’s now testing live coaching.
The six online schools now available through libraries each have different content and entry points:
⏩ Coursera has more than 5,000 courses led by businesses, universities and organizations, including Gateway Certification for people without college degrees or experience to gain skills for sought-after tech jobs.
⏩ LinkedIn Learning provides professional certificate courses; skills for landing work such as pitching yourself and tips for common interview questions; and “soft skills” like resilience, teamwork and time management.
⏩ GetSetUp offers live classes for people age 50 and up, covering digital learning (introductions to YouTube and Zoom, for instance); physical, mental and social health; and vocational skills.
⏩ SkillShare provides video courses on entrepreneurship, graphic design, productivity, marketing, data analytics and time management for people seeking to grow a business and/or learn new skills.
⏩ LearningExpress assists in preparing for exams, including vocational ones to be a police officer, air traffic controller, EMT, firefighter, nurse, teacher, real estate salesperson or plumber, as well as academic exams such as college placement tests.
⏩ Northstar focuses on people with no or limited tech skills, teaching them how to use a computer and the Internet in daily life, employment and higher education.
One of the program’s advantages is that it is a curated package, making it easier for people to home in on what’s useful.
“We live in a world of infinite information, products and services,” Lucas said. “The most value is to help someone find the needle they want in the information haystack. People can find what they’re looking for with ease (through CAreer Pathways) as opposed to poking around on the Internet.”
The federal grant covers one year; after that, the libraries will need the state to allocate money, he said.
The program also helps close the digital divide. For folks who don’t have computers at home, California libraries have 23,000 fixed terminals, plus scores of laptops — which can also be checked out along with hot spots for Internet connectivity.
“For folks who say, ‘Oh, libraries, do people still go to them?’ — they’re more important now than they’ve ever been,” Lucas said.