Macomb/St. Clair Michigan Works! Services Can Work For You.

The Michigan Works! Career Centers, located in Macomb and St. Clair Counties community offer youth, adults and the business community customer-friendly, easily accessible services. If you’re looking for your first job or a better job – from entry-level, skilled trades to degreed professions… If you’re interested in discovering a new career, what training programs are available, where they’re available, what financial assistance may be available… If you’re a veteran or an individual with a disability and wish to learn about quality specialized services that can help you enter or re-enter the workforce… If you have a good job but want a great job… Michigan Works! services can work for you.

Your Financial Needs

Identify Your Financial Needs

Examining your financial needs and goals is an important step in career planning. Knowing what you need to earn to be self-sufficient and beyond will help you to identify the right career for you.The biggest factor in identifying financial successful life transitions, and getting through financial emergencies is knowing how much you spend and breaking it down into things you absolutely need and the things you want.Food, shelter, clothing, transportation, communication tools, and medical care are basic necessities. Depending on location, health, and ability to split costs with others, the budget for these items can vary from a couple thousand to a few thousand dollars per month. Use the tools below to determine the local cost of living and your current individual financial situation.

Living Wage Information

The living wage shown is the hourly rate that an individual in a household must earn to support his or herself and their family. The assumption is the sole provider is working full-time (2080 hours per year).

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Identify Your Current Needs

Use our financial worksheet to determine your current cost of living and compare to the local calculation to find your future career needs to find financial independence.

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Find The Right Career

It’s important to identify the kinds of jobs that will provide you with satisfaction. There are career planning tools and self-assessment tools available online to help you get started. These tools can help you learn more about yourself and the occupations that might be right for you. The tools can help you to develop a career pathway by helping you to identify a short term and long term goal. It is also important to understand the local labor market. Occupational choices may be influenced by the wages paid in the local area and whether there are job opportunities in the local area.

Interest Assessment

CareerOneStop

Is a website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor and a partner of the American Job Center network. It can help you explore careers to learn more about specific occupations. Take some Self-assessments to learn more about what careers you might like. Learn about careers to help do better at finding and keeping a job, and getting reemployed if you lose a job.

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My Next Move

Is a website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration and is associated with O*NET OnLine. This website will allow you to search for careers with keywords. Help you to browse careers by industry. Explore options based on your interests if you are not sure what you want to do. If you are a veteran, it will help you to translate your military experience into a civilian career.

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pathfinder

This tool provides information to job seekers to help make informed choices about educational and career options. This free tool uses current labor market information, longitudinal wage data, and other institutional data and metrics, allowing improved skills-matching to career paths and jobs.

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Labor Market Information

Michigan Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives

The State of Michigan’s Labor Market Information website can provide information about occupations by industry, wages, occupations, and long and short-term employment projections.

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M/SCWDB Demand Occupation List

Each year the Macomb/St. Clair Workforce Development Board develops a local Demand Occupation List for Macomb/St. Clair Michigan Works!

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Setting Career Goals

Setting Your Future Career Goals

Now that you have done some career exploration, you have hopefully identified a career goal. Developing career goals is a way to plan for your future, and can be categorized as short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals are those that can be achieved in six months to three years, while it may take three to five years to reach long-term goals.

Developing Your Goal

Thinking about career goals in this way can help you to develop a career pathway. Developing long-term goals and working backward to create a plan brings organization and clarity to the actions and decisions you are making. Goals serve as a roadmap and remind you of where you need to go and what choices you need to make.

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Are You Ready For Your Next Career

Now that you’ve found your next career, use this simple Career Planning Survey to determine if you are ready for that career pathway.

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Find Training & Education

Finding Training And Education Opportunities

You have identified a career that will require you to increase your skills. There are options to help you get those new skills.

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act

WIOA is designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy.

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Classroom Training

Assistance to pay for tuition, fees, books and supplies may be available for WIOA eligible individuals.

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Pure Michigan Training Connect

Michigan’s Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL) is where you can learn more about classroom training opportunities in your area if you decide to go back to school.

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On-The-Job Training

Also funded by WIOA, OJT is designed to help you learn new skills while you work. A Michigan Works! Business Account Manager (BAM) can help you find an employer who is looking for someone who has some skills and is willing to teach some skills.

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Michigan Works! Young Professionals Program

Assists young adults aged 16-24, to identify a career pathway and offers support in reaching those goals.

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Senior Community Service Employment Program

SCSEP is a community service and work-based job training program for low-income, unemployed seniors.

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Michigan Rehabilitation Services

MRS works with eligible customers and employers to achieve quality employment outcomes and independence for individuals with disabilities.

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Adult Education & Literacy Training

If you have identified that you need to brush up on your reading, math or English language skills, there are great resources in our community.

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Financial Aid Options

There are many types of financial aid available. Grants are money given to students and are usually based on financial need. The best-known grant is a Pell Grant. There are other kinds of grants that focus on career choices, minorities or student types, and school types. Loans are moneys lent to students to pay for training that must be paid back. There are a variety of loans available to students depending on your status as a student. Scholarships are moneys given to a student that is not required to be paid back. Awards are based on various criteria, which usually reflect the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award. Contact the Financial Aid office of the school you are interested in attending for more information about Grants, Loans and Scholarships.

Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Application

MW! Sponsorship - Contact Us

Aditional Education & Experince Resources

Learning on Your Own

Get The Support You Need

Get the Support You Need

Basic Skills Assessment

If you are thinking about returning to school, but are not sure whether you would be successful, consider taking a basic skills assessment that can be administered by a Michigan Works! Career Planner. This assessment will look at reading and math skills and will help you to determine if you are ready for advanced training, or you need some brushing up.

Get personalized resources and support for your unique life situation from a Michigan Works! Career Planner.

Occupational Skills Training for Adults

Does your career goal require more skills than you currently have? Michigan Works! may be able to help you get the training you need to move along your career pathway.

Talk to a Career Planner about:

Classroom Training

On-the-job Training

Michigan Works! Young Professionals

may be what you are looking for if you are 16 to 24 years old and are looking for assistance to reach your career goals.

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Veterans Services

Veterans and eligible spouses receive priority of service under any qualified job training program funded in whole or in part by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).

Specialized services are available for veterans facing barriers to employment. Connect with a Disabled Veteran’s Outreach Program Specialist (DVOP) through a Michigan Works! Career Planner.

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Veteran Employability Boot Camp

Veteran Employability Boot Camp is a one week intensive workshop designed to prepare the veterans to do an effective job search. This workshop provides tools techniques, practice and support to rapidly re-enter the workforce.

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Senior Community Service Employment Program

The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) is a community service work-based training program for low-income unemployed seniors.

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Human Services

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services provides a wide variety of programs for adults and children. Visit their website below to learn more about the services that are available.

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Getting The Job

It’s important to be as prepared as possible when applying and interviewing for potential employment opportunities. Ensure you’ve done the proper preparation and research before walking into an interview. Remembering a few simple facts or exceptional things about the employer shows you are prepared and can be the one small difference that makes you stand out from other candidates.

Prepare

Make sure you have at least one Social Media profile. Having a positive and professional online presence can help you land your next job!
How to Create a Facebook Account
How to Create a Linkedin account
How to Create a Twitter Account
Do a social media check-up, make sure you’re putting your best foot forward in your public profile
Understand individual social media privacy settings and what can/can’t be seen online
Use Facebook’s Privacy Checkup and Help Center to better understand who sees your information
Use LinkedIn’s Privacy Help Page
Use Twitter’s Privacy and Saftey Settings
Temporary messaging services don’t always disappear and are easily capturable
Remember, nothing online is 100% private. Just because you delete something doesn’t mean there isn’t a record of it somewhere. Be smart about your social media presence.

Find & Apply

Use our free resources such as Featured Jobs and our Job Fair Bootcamps to find openings
Make sure you’re properly set up on Pure Michigan Talent Connect and use the Tutorials Section for guidance
Visit the careers section of a company’s website that you would like to work for to see if they are hiring directly
Attend Macomb County Chamber Networking Events, Sterling Heights Regional Chamber of Commerce Events and local MeetUp’s to further increase your professional network and get face-to-face time with business owners and professionals
Not all jobs are posted online, use any mutual connections or networking opportunities to discover recent and upcoming job openings

Research

Visit the employer’s website and any related social media accounts
Make use of Michigan Works! Workshops
Use GlassDoor to get salary information, reviews and more about your potential employer
Use Google and Google News search to gather even more information
Use LinkedIn to find mutual connections or contacts that may be associated with your potential employer and ask questions