Career Specialist - Brockton, MA

Job no: 510279
Work type: Staff Full Time
Location: Boston, UMass Amherst
Department: UMDI-MassHire Greater Brockton
Union: PSU
Categories: Career Services

About UMass Amherst

UMass Amherst, the Commonwealth's flagship campus, is a nationally ranked public research university offering a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. The University sits on nearly 1,450-acres in the scenic Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, and offers a rich cultural environment in a bucolic setting close to major urban centers. In addition, the University is part of the Five Colleges (including Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College), which adds to the intellectual energy of the region.

Job Summary

The MassHire Greater Brockton Career Center is a non-profit One-Stop Career Center that is managed by the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute (UMDI) and is overseen under charter with the MassHire Greater Brockton Workforce Board. The MassHire Greater Brockton Career Center is located in downtown Brockton and provides employment and training services to businesses and job seekers.

The Career Specialist provides intensive direct services to qualified job seekers through job counseling, workshop instruction, networking, and coordination of outside services to ensure job seekers are prepared to meet the needs of area businesses and are able to find employment in local demand industries. The Career Specialist’s primary duty is the performance of work directly related to the business of serving MassHire customers, specifically acting as adviser and counselor in matters relating to their job search, access and eligibility to Federal Title 1 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) services, and Unemployment Benefits. The focus is on ensuring that job seekers have information, training, and skills required to meet the demands of area businesses and to facilitate job-seeker access to local employment opportunities.

The Career Specialist works as part of a team to develop and foster opportunities for individuals at all levels of skill and experience. They provide career services that motivate, support, and empower customers. Career Specialists perform their work as a part of an integrated, multi-agency team; required to cross train with partnering agencies in order to ensure customers have the broadest possible access to necessary resources. This position must fulfill robust data entry and reporting requirements on program activities, meeting the standards of U.S. Department of Labor validation review.

Essential Functions

• Perform tasks, interventions, and provide advice to customers to accomplish MassHire overall mission objectives.
• Provide services to customers to allow them to successfully participate in WIOA and the Commonwealth’s Re-Employment Eligibility Assessment program.
• Facilitate re-employment services to job seekers.
• Assess clients’ skills, abilities, aptitudes and interests to facilitate career planning; analyze results of assessment to determine barriers to employment.
• Counsel job seekers. Collaborate with them to create and enact a successful job-search strategy and to take advantage of the resources available to them.
• Administer and interpret employability, academic, and aptitude skills assessments to establish customer career and educational needs as they relate to the demands of local business and the local employment market.
• Assess the eligibility of individual job seekers for specific programs, and obtain and prepare the necessary enrollment information for those participants who are eligible.
• Create individual career action plans with customers to ensure efficient navigation of federal and state workforce development systems.
• Counsel job seekers on their job search process and provide them with information regarding available resources and self-direct daily customer interactions to ensure medium and long-term programmatic objectives and metrics are met.
• Obtain required WIOA eligibility documentation from customers.
• Direct and instruct job-seekers on their obligations under programs with which they are involved that have specific requirements for participation or remaining in good-standing.
• Train job seekers on how to access, identify, and utilize labor market information. Facilitate and support ongoing customer job-search efforts.
• Analyze results of assessment to determine the educational needs, career plans, and career guidance needed for each participant.
• Identify appropriate training programs for eligible participants and complete paperwork needed to initiate a contract.
• Systematically follow-up with job seekers who enter training or obtain employment.
• Cross train and work with partnering agencies in a highly integrated environment to ensure that job seekers have access to the broadest level of resources.

Other Functions

Minimum Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Education, Experience, Certifications, Licensure)

• Bachelors’ degree; degree requirement may be waived in lieu of three (3) years of demonstrated, proven ability and experience in Workforce Development, Human Resources, or Counseling.
• Demonstrated ability in the following areas:
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Knowledge of workforce development and employment counseling techniques.
• Ability to facilitate and deliver workshops.
• Work with diverse populations regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, or disability.
• Excellent verbal and written English language communication skills.
• Strong organizational skills.
• Solid computer skills (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook).

Preferred Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Education, Experience, Certifications, Licensure)

• Ability to speak, read and write in other additional languages preferred. Languages preferred include but are not limited to: Spanish, Cape Verdean, Haitian/Creole, and Portuguese.
• Knowledge of the program requirements of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and other Federal and State programs.

Physical Demands/Working Conditions

• Multiple hours in stationary position using office equipment and computers.
• Environment is a busy, collegial office area resulting in multiple interruptions and requests for assistance.
• The physical/mental demands and work environment factors described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

Additional Details

This position is funded by grants and contracts, and is contingent upon funding. This is a full time benefited position. No relocation assistance provided.

Work Schedule

Standard full-time work schedule consisting of five, eight-hour days and 40 hours each work week. Work performed may require a change in availability at specific times, to accommodate for variations in work demands. Ability to work flexible hours with some evening and possibly weekend hours.

Salary Information

PSU Salary Level 25

PSU Pay Schedule

Special Instructions to Applicants

Along with your application, please submit a resume, cover letter, and contact information for three professional references.

UMass Amherst is committed to a policy of equal opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, age, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, disability, military status, or genetic information in employment, admission to and participation in academic programs, activities, and services, and the selection of vendors who provide services or products to the University. To fulfill that policy, UMass Amherst is further committed to a program of affirmative action to eliminate or mitigate artificial barriers and to increase opportunities for the recruitment and advancement of qualified minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and covered veterans. It is the policy of the UMass Amherst to comply with the applicable federal and state statutes, rules, and regulations concerning equal opportunity and affirmative action.

Advertised: May 12 2022 Eastern Daylight Time
Applications close: