FARMINGTON — Franklin County’s Adult Education program has added a community support day on Thursdays, during which anyone from the general public can seek assistance with technology and career advising.

Adult Education Director Nancy Allen listed the support resources now offered on Thursdays by appointment.

“Technology, career support. If somebody needs help with math or writing, we might be able to help them with that; resume writing and career exploration and searching for a job,” she said in a phone interview. 

The community support program has partnered with New Ventures Maine and Community Concepts to offer free, in-person career advising and virtual classes and workshops.

The adult education program is also offering both in-person and virtual enrichment courses, many of which are free and take place over the course of one or two sessions. Courses currently offered include College and Career Readiness, Facebook for Business and Central Maine Community College Criminal Justice Options.

“Our hope is that they’ll take more classes and enroll in some other programs,” Allen said.

The new community program sparked from the adult education office repeatedly receiving calls by the general public requesting career and technology support. Allen suspects this is due to the jump in unemployment rates across the County. 

“When we were looking at statistics, the statistics showed that unemployment in the County doubled from March to July,” she said.

According to the Maine Department of Labor website, Franklin County was at a 7% unemployment rate in August compared to 4% in March. The County has seen some improvement to unemployment rates during the pandemic months with rates dropping from April’s high of 11.6%. Statistics have yet to be published for the month of September.

The Adult Education program has hosted three community support days so far, and Allen said that they are seeing an increase in people seeking help for navigating virtual platforms that more employers are utilizing during the pandemic.

“I think we’re starting to see people who for the most part, need the technology part that are struggling with how to do Zoom, how to do email, things like that,” she said. “But we have had people ask us, ‘I need help finding a job,’ ‘I need help, how do I do a resume,’ things like that.”

Allen said that due to COVID-19, appointments must be made in advance before visiting the adult education office which is located at 128 Seamon Road in Farmington behind the Mt. Blue High School campus.

“That’s why they have to set a schedule so that we can monitor who is coming into this building. So they have to be masked and we have questions that we have to ask and there’s protocols,” Allen said.

Appointments can be made on Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., but accommodations can be made for a different time if necessary, Allen said.  

Those interested in seeking assistance from the adult education program should call 207-778-3460 to schedule an appointment. For more information on enrichment courses, visit the Franklin County Adult Education website at https://rsd9.maineadulted.org/. 

 

 

 

 

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