Every day, students are stopping by the Career Center for help on researching occupations, physical resources and interest and personality assessments.
The Career Center Program offers students the opportunity to visit with professionals, who have been in their career of choice for 10 years or more, for fact finding. This provides a tour of the job site, and allows the student to see their career they are looking into first hand.
“Society is influenced by the media. Shows like CSI or General Hospital glamorize the careers that they show. This program allows some of that reality to show through,” Fatima Ruiz, the Career Center Coordinator said.
Ruiz said that most students take the courses to transfer and in their two final years, they realize this wasn’t what they wanted to do. “The program keeps this from happening and makes sure this is the career the student wants to go into,” Ruiz said.
The Job Placement Center (JPC) provides the opportunity to find a job off campus. The listings for jobs have recently gone digital on the Yuba College homepage and can be found under the Job Board. The JPC gives three referrals a week to job sites and monitors them closely.
“If the student gets two warnings and on he third time still doesn’t go to the job site, we stop giving referrals to them,” Ruiz said. “I feel obligated more to the ones who are serious.”
The center also offers resume critiquing, and mock interviews.
Ruiz commented that there is an 85% success rate out of the 300 active files in the three areas she works in, as well as in the overflow she recieves from One Stop. She also commented that there is a 35-40% success rate in higher job rates.
The Transfer Center brings in Respective University Representatives from CSU Chico and Sacramento, as well as UC Davis, who meet with students twice a month for 30 minute meetings. Ruiz hopes that UC Berkeley and a few other universities, as well as other community colleges will follow suit.
“This will get students to think outside the box and not feel that they have to stay in this area,” Ruiz said. “They don’t know what’s out there, and they don’t want to find out.”
Every spring, the career Center holds a transfer reception where they recognize students who are transferring with a luncheon. They also host an annual Transfer Day Fair where 30-45 colleges attend to get students to transfer.
“The Career Center provides students with the resources to find their career they want to go into and sets them up with the schools, representatives, and jobs to obtain their goal,” said Ruiz.
The center has three different areas that are offered to students for free and are available from 7:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Monday-Friday, in building 100B, next to the counseling offices.
On Wednesday September 24, 2009, University Representatives will be on campus with information on colleges and universities in the area.
[correction: Alice Epler was incorrectly identified as Fatima Ruiz in our Summer 2009 print edition. Our apologies for the inconveniece.]
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