Press Release

17 YOUTH GRADUATING FROM GOODWILL RETAIL TRAINING PROGRAM EARN NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION CERTIFICATION

Seventeen young people who recently completed a training program that qualified them to work in customer service will receive certificates at a graduation ceremony on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 12:30 p.m. in the Community Room at Goodwill’s Headquarters on 165 Ocean Terrace in Bridgeport. Their families will be on hand to help them celebrate.

Available to out-of-school youth between the ages of 19 and 21, the Goodwill Retail Training Program is sponsored by a Workforce Investment Act grant administered by the WorkPlace, Inc. in Bridgeport and the Workforce Investment Board in Waterbury. This year, 11 students trained in Bridgeport and 6 in Waterbury.

It is a seven-week training program followed by job support for a year. Individualized remedial education and training are based on the needs of each person. Students participate in 24 hours per week of classroom and on-the-job training leading to certification in customer service by the National Retail Federation. Once they are certified, Goodwill helps them find competitive customer service oriented jobs.

“The program is awesome,” says Florami Cardenas. She enrolled because she wanted to accomplish something and get some work experience. “I met new people and learned things that I never thought I would learn,” she says. Florami is a single mother of a one-year-old child. When she enrolled in Goodwill’s Retail Training Program, she lacked a high school diploma and did not have any work experience. She has now passed the National Retail Federation’s customer service exam and is employed by the Bridgeport Goodwill Store. She runs the cash register and helps put merchandise out on the floor. She is also enrolled in Mercy Learning Center’s National External Diploma Program. She loves working in retail, and once she earns her high school diploma she plans on looking into college.

Another graduate is Jonathan Casiano.  “The program taught me retail skills as well as communication and social skills,” he says.  He now works at Target and is enrolled in high school night classes.

Goodwill Industries of Western Connecticut is a non-profit organization that provides employment and support services to people with disabilities and other barriers to employment. Goodwill programs help people gain the skills they need to obtain and keep a job so that they may become self-sufficient. Programs focused on youth are growing.

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THE PRESS IS INVITED TO ATTEND THE GRADUATION CEREMONY AT 12:30 P.M. ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2010.  INTERVIEWS ARE ENCOURAGED.