Category: Jobs and Employment
Hi all,
I am currently looking into the Lions World vocational training in Little Rock, Arkansas. I wanted to do the IRS program there, but I found out that I have to have four years of college or equivalent experience, which I have neither so wouldn't qualify. My vocational rehabilitation counselor was the one that told me about the IRS program, but he didn't realize that it required college/work experience, so I let him know of this and that I might be interested in doing the assistive technology program there, although he seems hesitant because he says that the test in Texas for that is hard. I may look into moving out of Texas after the training, and I guess all of the states are different.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone here on the Zone has ever taken any of the training programs in Arkansas, not just the assistive technology but any of the programs? I would like to know your opinions of the center itself and conditions and staff, as well as the quality of training you got and if you were able to obtain successful employment after you were finished and graduated? Also, were the staff helpful there in finding employment and at job placement? Which program that they offer there do you think is the best one to take and has the most successful rate of people being employed after graduating?
I spoke with two individuals that went there who said they wouldn't ever go back there, and one said that assistive technology is almost a nonexistent market for employment and it took them a while to get a job afterwards. The other person, however, said she liked the training but the facilities were not clean. They both said the rooms were not clean and had some roach problems, etc. I have heard from them, but I would be interested in hearing from anyone else that has done the program.
I am just wondering because I have a 2 and a half year old daughter who won't be able to come with me if I decide to go, and I don't want to leave her for that long if I am not going to get anything from the programs there and if I am not going to find successful employment with the training they provide.
If this training center is not good, is there any other programs or job training that you recommend, either local in Texas or anywhere in the U.S.?
Thank you,
Misty
Hi, Misty I live in Northwest Louisiana and we have a program like the one in Arkansas offering all the same things here too Louisiana Association for the Blind aka LAB. They are very good and I even know some of the folks at the place that you can get in touch with...if your interested call: 318-698-2300 and ask for Rosa Robertson or Miss Charlotte and they should be able to tell you all about what they offer. Even though I've been there for just a day or 2 they are very good and I think they can help you better than Arkansas could. I heard some bad things about the one in Arkansas also, so... We also have good Daycares here too and they can tell you about their transportation ways and all...acctually our transportation is very good...hope this helped and let me know if you've contacted them and how everything turns out.
Honestly, I've spoken to several peoople that have gone there, and almost all of them have had less than good things to say about both the programs offered, as well as the place itself. I'd be very careful about getting a lot more information before going there.
for the record, I was referring to lions world.
I went to lion's world for the 8 week college prep program, and am sorry I did. I'll say this: if you're going for the IRS program, you'll be fine, and probably gain a lot...anything else, you're wasting your time.
There is a vocational program here in phoenix but you still have to be in school. The school is called metro tech high school. There is all kinds of things there like child care building doing things in a caffataria and doing peoples hear hope you enjoy.
But isn't that program only for high school students? She wants adult programs.
I'd consider why you want to go to some program specifically for the blind. It sounds like they have a lot of problems - from this board and others. That makes sense: consider the black schools of the 1960s and the like.
Nowadays you can go to community college or university and they even have 'disabled services' - they sorta had that in the early nineties but nothing like now. With modern technology you don't need them places anymore. I understand it's a challenge, but you won't be having to type stuff out with a typewriter or anything: The computer lab probably has a reader, certainly does if they have Macs.
I'd just consider going to a desegregated school were I you. You'll have more options I think, plus you have community colleges in your immediate area.
You know what I never thought of community college. I think that'll be better for you and the kid anyhow...I'll look in to Leo's advice.
I would agree with the last poster. With the advances in access to colleges, there's really no need, in my oppinion for blind-specific programs. I think a regular college would look better to a potential employer on a resume. Having to explaine a "special school" might confuse them. Plus, college might give you the chance to explore options that you may have never considered before. It might give you the chance to gain some relevant experience through paid or volunteer work and internships while attending class. Please don't be fooled into thinking that just attending vocational school will help you land a job. Be prepared to do other outside work to gain experience. While an Assistive tech program might sound like an easy path, it is really a very limited field. This might cause you to not have as many job options open to you. If you wanted to work with non-assistive tech, that might be a different story. I just can't see how a person working with Jaws, or some other blind-related software would have an easy time finding a regular job. I think the key here is to try to gain transferrable skills. Also, many colleges provide daycare at reduced rates. If the school your attending doesn't run one, I know some states will help subsidize daycare costs for college students. At this point, you might want to reassess your goals with your counselor. I'm not reading a whole lot of positive comments regarding the program you want to attend. If you haven't already done so, you might want to consider taking a vocational assessment test to help you explore other career options. Hth, and PM me if you have any other questions. HTH.
Sorry, didn't mean to say HTH twice. Ahh, nice to put that college degree to work. Lol.
Hi,
I was actually enrolled in college for a while but had trouble with affording child care so had to drop out for a while until she is old enough to go to school herself. I applied for the day care program at my local community college and they sent me a letter saying that they were full and would be full for a while. I also tried Worksource, which does the subsidized child care for people that are working or going to school, but they also had a waiting list that was at least a year long, and so did Child Inc, which is the equivalent of Head Start here in Texas. The only reason I would have been able to do the Arkansas program is because my mother in North Carolina said she would be willing to take care of my daughter while I went, although that would be impossible for the local community college because I live in Texas and she lives in North Carolina, which are in two different parts of the country, and I don't want to move back to NC to go to school in the same town as my mother because it is a small town with limited transportation and little job opportunities for disabled people as it is a rural town of about 4,000 people. I thought I would look into the program in Arkansas, but now that I have heard so much bad about it I don't think it will be good for me anyway. As far as going back to school, I may have to wait a little while until she is old enough to go to preschool to go back to community college. I was trying to do classes online through my community college, but I still had to come on campus for tests, which sometimes was more than once a week as I was a full time student and I didn't have money to pay a babysitter because I am on a fixed income until I am able to find a job, and rent and bills as well as other expenses for my daughter take just about all my income so I finally withdrew after obtaining 15 credit hours. Right now I am just looking for a way to obtain employment so I can afford to pay for child care and go back to school as soon as I can start working and could do the classes online and take the tests on Saturdays as the Office of Students with Disabilities is open on Saturdays. I have tried to apply at the Lighthouse for the Blind, but right now they are in a hiring freeze, and so are other jobs I applied for previously.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I hope all this explain a little about why I was considering the Lions World Program and what my goals are and everything.
Thanks for everyone's input,
Misty
I understand what those of you who aren't advocating blindness specific training centers are getting at...but it is crucial for some of us.
Perhaps it's worth enlightening the rest of us then. You have to understand the perspective of probably many of us:
The 1960s isn't that far ago, and it was a time when things like Brown Vs. The Board Of Education went through allowing African American individuals to be desegregated. To be a quality blind place you'd have to do a lot: My niece, for one, is going to community college in order to get her prereqs done and also to learn a trade, cooking in her case, so that she will have a marketable skill / trade before she tries to venture into college.
Now more than ever this is important. When I went to college, I had the opportunity to go overseas and study in Japan. Could a blind place do that? I doubt it: segregation = very limited resources: it is not, as the southerners proclaimed, "the same water."
And when I went to college many of us got what now could be called nothing degrees: I got a Liberal Arts International Studies degree. I may be a software developer but that's because I jumped in the game as soon as the web became a thing for the masses and started out playing tech weenie. Anymore, and even then (though we didn't know it), these types of degrees aren't worth very much. Since student loans now have the interest rates credit cards do, academia is gonna have to get with the fuckin program here and start coming up with real down-to-earth reasons why we should pay 'em with our taxes. Frankly I don't know how much of this bloatware we're gonna keep around and how much we're simply gonna just uninstall, because the no-frills vocational training schools are cheaper, give employers something to work with, and hell they seem to whine a lot less, but I do digress.
If Academia with all the millions of your tax dollars seems to be struggling like a combination of Internet Explorer inbred with Microsoft Word and Access, how will those blind places survive on probably very scanty resources?
I actually think we oughta do what Spain has done: the blind own an industry, the lottery, from the ground up. Everything lottery is manufactured, marketed, sold and managed by the blind. It doesn't mean you have to work for it, but it's work and work at all conceivable levels. I was over there and saw some stuff in the late 90s, mostly because it got me curious. They have the highest income per capita in the world for blind people and they all work.
Maybe we oughta close all the blind places down and centralize it all, head-bang out a solution for something profitable for us. You own them places, and don't you forget it: it's your money keeps the lights on over there. All academics gets federal funding, it's not like the k-12 schools, there's some amazing grants gets paid for every time you put that 1040 in the mail, or press that magic Submit button on IRS.gov.
Granted my ramblings are the results of a few beers but I think the blind places are probably just gonna have to kick it or innovate like the rest. Only problem is, it's a minority, there just aren't that many of us, and there's no sex appeal like being black or gay. It ain't fashionable so it basically is up to us. That's evolution for ya I guess.
Hi, I would agree, though I for one, do not want to work with specifically blind people, and working for a lottery does not sound like an appealing career. Misty, it sounds like you're in a real catch 22. You need a job, but you're having trouble finding one, this could be due to a lack of relevant experience. You sound a lot like me, when I was in the no-job/no-experience part of my life. Perhaps what might help, is to tackle one thing at a time. First, I'd work on some basic goal setting. What do you wanna do and why, what skills do you have that could help you, and how could you gain the skills that you're lacking? If daycare is an issue, why not use a volunteer from a local church or organization. Our town operates a volunteer service for seniors, that runs background checks on all participants. Have you thought of AmeriCorps? This program would give you daycare allowance, experience, and money for education. Really, you can't lose. If that's not what you want, then you really should consider doing some kind of volunteer work to gain relevant skills. It might not pay the bills at first, but it could very well lead to something that does. I can't stress enough how much experience counts. Especially for blind people. Sure, anyone can get an education, but you're really gonna impress a potential employer if you show them you have some skills to back it up. Honestly, they don't really care if it's volunteer work or an internship, it still counts as work and should go on a resume. Plus you'll make some connections, and gain some great references that'll probably really help you in the future. Face it, blind people are not a majority, so why would you wanna go to a "blind" school, when the rest of the world is sighted, and is probably way ahead of these schools in both resources and personnel. It may sound great to go to one of these schools, but honestly, you're probably not gonna be doing yourself any favors. I'm sure you would qualify for some sort of pell grants to attend college. If you don't, there's always scholarships. As much as it sucks, there's just not a lot out there for blind people who lack a secondary education. And, even if we have one, it's still not always easy. I think any kind of experience would really help you at this point. An education and experience, is even better. You may have to take very small steps that seem really insignificant, but they'll all help you get to where you want to be.
BLW if she's outa cash that's not gonna fly though: nobody will pay scholarship so she can volunteer and when you got a little one cash = king. I were one: in 2005 I lost my business and heard funny-sounding psychobabble about opportunities to take a new direction / mid-careeer stuff / made me ask the poor soul if she'd been indulging in some mushrooms I've not seen in a long while. The real story is, you gotta make some dough because that's what keeps the lights on. That IMHO is where the American blind "community" falls / epically fails miserably. Basically nobody will float you while you go volunteer, in her case, or in what some were attempting to suggest for me, while I go re-decide.
Misty you may want to try the Blind Vendors program in your area, especially if you have any experience with Excel and of course Google the two tools I used most to get me through that. It does suck as most programs from the government do, but as a parent cash is king and failure to acquire a stash of it puts you and your little one at some serious risk. If you could see you'd be driving a cab, working at a store or something while you got it together. Them blind vendor places'll work ya, you'll bust your ass, oh yeah that sorta happens anyway. But seriously then you'll be doing something for real and the government will probably be able to float you for some daycare costs.
Depending on the state you're in, the training may be short or long: where I am I trained for a month, busted a little ass to cut the time down, so I could inventory in and get my own place.
That's just an option, not nearly as good as if we could see and hit the pavement / run Sir Yuppie around in a town car or something.
But the volunteer thing: I've been on both ends of the hiring thing: been the hirer and the hired. I have never seen a single resume with volunteer anything on it ever. You hear people say this, but I'm not convinced the real data (percentages, stats 101 type things) would support it. Truthfully people look at volunteers as 'just volunteers' while paid staff are another thing. Maybe in social service people see things differently, I don't know. Honestly I hope you get some cash flow and a resolution.
I agree with the last post, shoot, I have a lot of non-paid work but when I started looking for work that did not get any where. As for Lions world, hmm I can not say much for them was not impressed seeings how the tacher how was teaching me did not have her office certifications at the time and I was flying past her with leeps and bounds.
sorry I ment teacher
Okay, If I haven't already said it, the key word is "relevant" volunteer work. I'm not saying that if you volunteer for a year you'll end up with your dream job. the key is to taylor your work with your interests. Wanna teach? Tutor kids. Wanna work in the Human Services/counseling field? Do some victim's assistance work, or work with victims of domestic violence or sexual assault, the homeless, or others in need. Also, your skill set is crucial. Are you up on recent computer technology? Some education is better than none, so even some free training involving issues that interest you would look good. I know you really need a job, a paying one! But, honestly, I don't see that happening until you get some experience-- any experience that you can to prove your abilities. I suppose too that the volunteer work you do will probably help you in somefields more than others. Attitude, skills, experience, education, self-presentation, these all contribute to the total package. Again, I'm not recommending you volunteer your entire life, but it could be a foot in the door. Do you think working with a blind organization will really help you in a mostly sighted world? Judging from other posts, it might not! Research other states, write a resume, get some good references, take very small steps, and hopefully soon you'll have a job.