'WorkAbility 101' to Kick Off 21st Century Courses

The Charleston Area Alliance and the Community and Technical College System of West Virginia are teaming up to offer “Skills for the 21st Century,” a series of courses designed to help employees be better, more productive employees.

“The goal is to be able to offer businesses more skilled employees and more valuable employees,” said Leanne Stowers, the Alliance’s workforce and education specialist. “We want to help them reduce turnover.”

Each “skill set” course includes four classes over a two-month period. The first course, WorkAbility 101, will offer instructors specializing in workplace etiquette, customer service, ethics and business communication.

Future course and class themes will include basic personal finance, computer literacy, meeting facilitation, networking and team training.

“There’s a big list of skill sets,” said Sid Valentine, CTCS coordinator for workforce and technical program development. “These are portable skills workers could take with them their entire careers.”

The first class, which focuses on etiquette, is scheduled for 8 a.m. to noon June 9 at the Alliance offices on Smith Street. The other three classes are scheduled for the same time period June 23, July 7 and July 21. The program will then offer another course in August.

The course fee is $50 for Alliance members and $75 for non-members. The per-class fee is $20 for members and $30 for non-members.

To register, call Leanne Stowers at (304) 340-4253 or visit www.CharlestonAreaAlliance.org/events.