MARQUETTE -- The Goodwill Workforce Development Program is working with area agencies to help people with financial hardships obtain better job skills.
Toby Millwood, 49, has been through some tough times he calls "battling circumstance." The eight-year military veteran has learned to live without something we all take for granted.
"I spent three years in a place without electricity," said Millwood. "When you battle circumstances, sometimes everything doesn't really come easy."
What has come easy though is a job training program that's getting people back into the workforce.
It starts with housekeeping duties at the Country Inn & Suites in Marquette. The program developed as a result of a $30,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation. The money has helped Goodwill's Workforce Development Program partner with the hotel. Now they're taking people like Toby under their wing and helping them develop job skills they might've lost during financial hardship.
"When you have heard no's or you have life circumstances that are difficult, you begin to think that you're just not good enough, or no one is going to hire me, and so this is an opportunity for us to take the time to give them tools to develop a better self-image," said Debi Barron, a service provider at Goodwill Workforce Development Program.
The program is six weeks long. Barron also works with the candidates on making that first impression during a job interview. And the progress she's made with Toby is clear.
"He made the comment, 'I need to show up dressed for the job I would like to have someday, not necessarily the one that I'm interviewing for,' and that's big. That's where we want them to go," Barron said.
The program is also offered in Manistique and Sault Ste. Marie. If you'd like to learn more, e-mail Rita Keilholtz, Workforce Development Regional Manager, at rkeilholtz@gwmarinette.org.
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