by Clayton Trosclair/WEST OAKLAND

Job recruiters from the U.S. Census Bureau, the California Department of Elections and a host of private companies have begun hiring teenagers who have grown up in Oakland’s foster care system.

Two dozen jobseekers have finished a new six-week training program at the Oakland Private Industries Council specially geared to foster care youth. Led by Ralph Hall and Kenya Holloman, two counselors who formerly lived in foster care themselves, the program teaches computer skills, strategies for job interviews and helps applicants write eye-catching resumes.

Ralph Hall (standing) and Kenya Holloman review online job applications with their trainees.

The program aims to help foster care youth compete on equal footing with other young adults applying for jobs. One key issue, Holloman said, is that many trainees have adequate work experience but don’t know how to communicate that to an employer. For example, sometimes a resume is missing crucial parts of their job history just because they don’t know how to word it.

“A lot of them have the skills and abilities to perform well on the job,” she said. “They just don’t know how to put it on paper and go about presenting it.”

On Friday, hiring managers from UPS visited the job center in downtown Oakland to scout part-time workers for the upcoming holiday season. One supervisor, Ron Gervais, said he plans to hire at least 210 people to work as driver assistants and as package handlers at Bay Area airports between now and the end of the year. The jobs pay $8.25 and $8.85 per hour, he said, and workers typically qualify for overtime after five hours on the clock. The company sometimes extends permanent job placements to young people who do well as holiday hires.

“It’s seasonal work for the most part. But if people do a good job, we’ll bring them back,” he said.

The training program accepts foster care teens and young adults up to 24 years old. Anthony Grady, 22, is one of the job trainees who interviewed with UPS on Friday. He said he has had a hard time finding a job since he became independent at the age of 18.

“It was difficult because I don’t think I was ready yet. I didn’t have the life skills,” he said. “It was tough.”

Grady has worked temporary jobs for the past four years, along with stints at McDonald’s and Wal-Mart. He left Friday’s UPS interview with a new frame of mind. “I’m pretty confident I got the job,” he said.

The program does more than connect employers and potential employees. Trainers make sure that young people are ready to head into a job interview looking sharp and feeling confident. One way is by letting them borrow shoes, pants, neckties and other work clothes from a “success closet.”

Holloman said she recently convinced a trainee who showed up for an interview in jeans to swap them out for a pair of dress slacks.

“Sometimes at the end of the day what you’re wearing may be why you didn’t get that next interview,” she told him. “I realized later he couldn’t afford anything at the moment.”

“They need someone to tell them, ‘Hey, anything that you want, you can get. Anything.’ And that’s all people need sometimes is a little bit of push and motivation and a little bit of support,” she said.

Recruiters from the US Census Bureau plan to visit the center on October 21st. Citibank and Ace Parking are among the private companies conducting interviews later this month.

Officials at the Private Industry Council said all jobseekers are welcome to attend the hiring sessions. For more information on the foster care job training program or the center’s other offerings, call (510) 768-4400 or visit www.oaklandpic.org.

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