Top Benefits of The MERS Goodwill Excel Center

If you lack the necessary skills, it can be quite daunting to even come across job opportunities, let alone land one. Instead of flailing around by yourself looking for a job, have you ever thought about visiting a Goodwill Career Center? Or, if you don’t have a high school diploma, have you ever considered achieving one through the free Excel Center? Taking advantage of the services offered at a Goodwill job center can help you level the job market playing ground, and they are open to anyone regardless of race, gender, or past criminal history, so there’s no excuse not to look into it. What matters most at a Missouri Career Center is that you are willing to make a positive change in your life.

Why Joining a Goodwill Career Center is the Right Move

It takes a lot of searching to land the right job with a competitive salary. After all, you’ll spend most of your life working, so you’ll want to carefully consider all your options to make sure you land in the right place. A well-paying job guarantees a good life and freedom from the vicious cycle of poverty. If you have such a dream and live in the Show-Me State, a Missouri Career Center can help you get there. Here are the reasons why you should visit the nearest Goodwill job center:

1. Goodwill Values

Of course, you want to make sure an organization has a good set of values before you get involved with them, and every employer looks for specific values in a person before hiring them. Having a strong moral base helps bring you closer to your vision and goals, and a Goodwill job center definitely fits the bill. Goodwill’s mission is to change lives through the power of work, and some core values that help achieve that goal are:

• Striving for excellence
• Acting with integrity and gratitude
• Educating and serving with compassion
• Respecting everyone
• Championing diversity

2. Goodwill centers have a purpose.

What motivates you to wake up daily and go to work? Does it give you the personal fulfillment you deserve? Every Goodwill job center has a purpose for its employees, who can help you find your own purpose, too. The purpose is to give back to the community through training and creating additional job opportunities—at a Missouri Career Center, you can access career counseling, résumé help, interview practice, and many other services to help you find and keep a fulfilling job.

3. Actualize Your Dreams

You probably want to live your dream before you’re too old for what good life has to offer. Goodwill job centers have a reputation for helping people from all walks of life chase and achieve their dreams, and there’s no time like the present to go after them. If part of that dream is earning a high school diploma, you can also do that at the Excel Center. There are so many great opportunities waiting for you on the other side of your experience at a Missouri Career Center, and taking advantage of them is a great way to get to where you want to go in your life. 

4. Excel Center

Excel Centers at Goodwill help adults get high school diplomas, post-secondary credits, and industry-recognized certifications to improve their earning potential. The Excel Center program is free and is open to anyone, including people with past criminal records. Besides flexible studying schedules, the Excel Center also offers the following:

• A dedicated life coach
• Extended hours and year-round operation
• Transportation assistance
• Free drop-in center for child care

How Goodwill Career Centers Help Fight Poverty

Goodwill believes in the power of work to help kick out poverty in communities trapped in its vicious cycle. The organization offers training on various job skills that ensure you are stable for life. To ensure sustainability even after training programs, Goodwill job centers focus on:

Individual Empowerment

Goodwill job centers work with job seekers and local employees to train individuals on hands-on skills that make them desirable employees. The Missouri Career Center is quite resourceful, thanks to career advisors who will improve your interview skills. That way, you can always walk into an interview room with rejuvenated confidence and executive presence. Most importantly, you’ll have access to multiple digital courses that are a must-have for current employment, as well as online hiring events.

Getting empowered can have a transformational ripple effect on many aspects of your life. Besides defining a clear purpose of existence, you’ll get exposed to a new world that pushes you to become a better person, not just a better employee. You’ll also learn new skills to help you reach new career heights. 

Family Strengthening

Once you are empowered, you can pass some benefits on to your immediate family members. Leveraging Excel Center and Career Center services means you can inspire your younger siblings or other relatives to put more effort into schoolwork. Most importantly, a new job can mean being able to afford tuition fees for school-attending family members. The empowering goes on and on as other members finish school, land jobs, and give back to the larger family.

Employment and reliable education opportunities at the Excel Center and Career Center can be stepping stones to bidding poverty goodbye!

Building Stronger Communities

Empowering a whole community starts at individual and family levels. If you benefit from Missouri Career Center programs, you’ll earn a decent living, which can lead to having more opportunities to fully participate in and give back to your community. Moreover, Goodwill job centers believe in collective giving back to society. Everyone working at the center can give back in many ways, including offering resourceful training to empower others.

You should also note that successful people in the community are a motivation symbol to the upcoming generation. When the community follows your footsteps, you end up having a more informed and strengthened society.

Top Skills Acquired at a Goodwill Career Center

The current job market is highly competitive due to the unemployment surge in many communities. The modern employer appreciates a work-ready individual who will give results right away. Besides your notable accomplishments and certifications, you need to exude specific skills that increase your productivity at work. While some people have innate skills, it helps when someone points you in the right direction. Here are several such skills you’ll acquire after completing your training at a Missouri Career Center:

1. Communication Skills

Having practical communication skills will put you on the right job and help you sustain it. Most job candidates get sidelined at the interview stage because of poor communication skills. Practical communication skills cut across all industries, regardless of your job position. For example, even in business, you need to communicate in a language that encourages people to buy more of your products. You can also chase or bring external investors aboard just by how you communicate. Exceptional communication skills taught at Missouri Career Centers include:

• Written communication to help you build a robust résumé
• Speaking skills for a job interview and meeting participation
• Listening skills
• Negotiation skills

All these skills can help you build an irresistible career profile to help you achieve your dreams.

2. Interpersonal Skills

How well do you relate to and interact with your peers? How about your supervisors? Interpersonal skills will determine whether you get your next promotion or even lose your job. Many entry-level job positions involve dealing with clients directly. You’ll only have positive customer reviews if you build direct relationships with the people you serve. Practical interpersonal skills will not only help you excel career-wise, but they’ll also help you handle challenging situations. For instance, how do you tell a stubborn client that you can’t do individual favors without sounding rude? Remember, in most organizations, the customer is always right. Interpersonal skills that you’ll learn to embrace at a Missouri Career Center include:

• Motivation
• Flexibility
• Empathy

3. Self-Management Skills

Your ability to scale higher in life and perform to your employer’s standards largely depends on practical self-management skills. It includes how you manage anger, compliments, and even individual goals. Having the right set of self-management skills will help differentiate priorities and wants. Chasing your priorities can get you what you want in life even if it takes longer than expected, but not vice versa. Most importantly, it helps if you get your self-management skills in order while it’s still early so that you don’t lock out once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that come with a good job. Goodwill job centers champion these self-management skills:

• Self-motivation
• Organization
• Time management

4. Computer Skills

Many organizations are going paperless, or at least getting close to it. Even if your job doesn’t require expert computer knowledge, learning a few necessary skills won’t do any harm. Several job tasks require basic computer skills; examples include sending emails, logging in at work, and even sending reports. And with the rise of cutting-edge technology, remote working is increasingly becoming popular. It promotes flexibility and helps organizations save a lot in terms of operational costs. As such, there’s a good chance your next employer might prefer remote working, which would require lots of computer knowledge. Necessary computer skills that you’ll learn at the Excel Center and Career Center include:

• Email communication
• Word and Excel processing
• Software competency

5. Organizational Skills

As noted, getting a job is one thing, but keeping it is another. Once you land a job, it doesn’t mean that HR will turn a blind eye to your performance. You should keep in mind that other people can perform just like you, or even better. It helps if you remain competitive from all angles. Practical organizational skills don’t only boost your productivity, but they can also be vital in securing a promotion. While you’ll acquire some organizational skills as your work responsibilities widen, here are some skills you can learn at a Missouri Career Center:

• Conflict management
• Attention to detail
• Critical thinking
• Planning

6. Leadership Skills

Practical leadership skills are handy at all job levels, whether you are a business owner or a subordinate. Being able to recognize good leadership helps you coexist peacefully with others while maintaining motivation for improved productivity. Leadership skills are also vital in handling family matters as you grow older. Exceptional leadership skills echoed at the Excel Center and Career Centers include:

• Dependability
• Active listening
• Patience
• Ability to give and receive feedback

7. Problem-Solving Skills

Problem-solving skills will not only help you stay away from trouble in your career, but it will also be a determinant of whether you land the job in the first place. Employers need candidates who can take matters into their own hands without costing the organization money or reputation. These are the prevalent problem-solving skills you’ll come across at a Missouri Career Center:

• Research
• Decision making
• Effective communication skills

8. Teamwork Skills

Are you a team player? It is essential to understand that no one achieves excellent results by working in a vacuum. Most importantly, employers prefer job candidates who demonstrate unmatched teamwork skills. Teamwork allows you to learn and copy from others. It also allows you to teach your colleagues what you are best at. After all, humans are born with different innate skills. Goodwill Career Centers teach:

• Team communication skills
• Responsibility
• Accountability
• Collaboration
• Honesty

9. Strong Work Ethics

Lastly, you will learn about strong work ethics that make you indispensable to your organization. At a Goodwill job center, you’ll learn how to meet strict deadlines without abdicating your other career duties. You’ll also learn how to relate with your colleagues without stepping on personal boundaries.

What’s Next?

You’ve seen how impactful it can be when you take advantage of the services offered by the Goodwill job center in your community. And if you dropped out of high school, it is never too late to make a U-turn and reshape your destiny by earning your diploma through the Excel Center. Think about the people you’ll impact by getting your education and résumé in order. Finding a job can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be—a Missouri Career Center can be a great partner in helping you achieve your full potential.