When, after 28 years, Beverly Wiker lost her administrative job at Pepperidge Farm’s plant in Downingtown, “it felt like a death in the family,” she said.
“I was in shock,” she said, sitting in an Exton classroom with other unemployed people, who have become her new, extended family, united by their unwilling membership in the world of long-term joblessness.
What also unites this group is renewed hope generated by a program launched last month in Chester County targeting the long-term unemployed.
Called Platform to Employment and based on a successful model in Connecticut that placed 80 percent to 90 percent of participants in jobs in their fields, the program puts people such as Wiker through a five-week job-search and morale-building boot camp.
The concentrated regimen includes mental health support, financial counseling, and a more updated and systematic approach to the job search. Participants are in class six hours a day, four days a week, with up to two hours of daily homework.
Meanwhile, program officials work behind the scenes with employers, offering them temporary wage assistance while the new hire learns the ropes.
So far, with the class ending next week, four of the 25 have jobs and many others are having more interviews than they’ve had in weeks.
It comes at an important time. Even as the job market is expanding, prospects for long-term unemployed remain stubbornly elusive.
On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department released its monthly jobs report, showing that the ranks of long-term unemployed have fallen by 400,000 since last year. But 2.1 million – more than one in four among the nation’s 7.9 million unemployed – have been jobless for at least 27 weeks.
“The longer they are out, the more difficulties they have in all areas of their lives,” said Cheryl Spaulding, who leads Downingtown-based Joseph’s People, a church-based network of unemployment support groups.
“They have financial troubles, they have self-confidence issues, they have emotional issues, they have family problems,” she said.
But, she said, a job cures most of these issues.
Spaulding was an advocate for establishing Platform to Employment in Chester County, where the county’s workforce investment board is betting $175,000 – most of it earmarked for wage support – that Wiker and 24 others can be placed in permanent jobs in their fields.
Part of the group’s training includes more sophisticated use of social media, such as LinkedIn, and a deeper grasp of algorithms that job-search engines use to locate candidates by keywords in their resumés.
Mutual support is key: An announcement that someone has landed an interview generates applause, tips, and another chance to review interviewing skills. They’ve already written out answers to tough questions, so they can respond smoothly.
Participants learn to target specific companies and pursue connections within them.
If instructors have a connection or can make one in those firms, they get on the phone.
Jim Lauckner, who runs Chester County’s Hire One program working to place laid-off professional-level employees, urged the class to call him before they call the companies.
“We can maybe make a soft introduction,” he said, helping to move candidates’ resumés to the top of the pile.
If their interview is working, class members can try to seal the deal by telling employers about wage support.
The program will pay the job’s full salary for four weeks and half the salary for the next four weeks as long as the firm agrees to hire the candidate if satisfied.
So far the four people hired out of the inaugural class haven’t had to tap into the fund.
Many in the class have already had interviews and some are honing in.
Among them is Madeleine Keyes, of West Chester, who credits the group for the renewed confidence that helped her make connections at the University of Delaware, where she works on a per-diem basis recruiting nursing students. She hopes that it becomes full time.
She was laid off from a similar job at Immaculata University in February. “My job search was stagnant for a while,” she said. “This intense boot camp has been very good to get me back on track.”
A tip she learned was to sit up straight in interviews, placing hands on her legs from time to time. It’s not obvious to the interviewer, but “you are giving yourself a little hug.
“It raises your confidence level,” she said. “It’s all self-talk. ‘You can do it.’ “