employment

PCC Cascade Campus

The Cascade Campus is the anchor of a neighborhood in the midst of transformation. Located in the middle of the most culturally diverse section of Portland, Cascade offers a range of programs as varied as the community surrounding it.

Cascade broadened its workforce development offerings recently with the successful transition of the Evening Trades Apprenticeship Preparation program (ETAP) to the campus. ETAP, along with the Margaret Carter Skill Center and the Trades & Industry program, comprise the comprehensive array of workforce training options at Cascade. Students can prepare for skilled apprenticeships, sharpen the skills they need for their current jobs, or train for a change of careers. ETAP and Cascade’s Pre-Trades courses are both certified by the State of Oregon as direct entry pre-apprenticeship programs, making their graduates automatically qualified to apply for apprenticeships in a range of skilled trades.

Cascade’s mainstream college programs, too, offer entry into many different sectors of industry. The campus is home to a number of unique programs offered nowhere else in the PCC system, such as Medical Laboratory Technology, Professional Music, Paralegal, and Emergency Services – Fire Science, Paramedic, Emergency Medical Technician, 9-1-1 Telecommunicator, and Emergency Management (the only such degree program in Oregon).

Situated in the revitalized North Portland area, Cascade Campus offers students a centralized location and broad ties to the many cultures represented in its surrounding community. Located in the heart of an historic neighborhood, Cascade is the home of such annual festivities as the acclaimed Cascade Festival of African Films, one of the most prominent and popular film festivals in the Pacific Northwest. The rich blend of culture, tradition and renewal that flavors Cascade Campus is reflected in the neighborhoods it serves, which are making names for themselves as hot spots of Portland art and commerce. Cascade’s self-guided walking art tour is anchored by its new Art Gallery, which opened in the fall of 2006.

The Campus occupies the nexus between North Portland’s past, present and future. Its roots go deep into the community’s history – it occupies the grounds of what was once Cascade College, a four-year Christian school established in the early 1900s. PCC purchased the land in the late 1960s, and the new campus opened in the fall of 1971. Ever since, Cascade Campus has become a focal point for rebirth in the neighborhood and serves local residents with needed job training, college transfer and self-improvement courses.

Cascade Campus serves approximately 14,397 students each year under the guidance of campus president Dr. Algie Gatewood.

Swan Island Training Center

In May 2008, Vigor Industrial and PCC joined forces to open the Swan Island Training Center to help meet demand for workers. Skilled welders are a key labor component for manufacturing companies and, locally, there is a shortage of well-trained workers in this vital trade. Companies on the east side of the Willamette River, such as U.S. Barge, Vigor Industrial, Service Steel and Columbia Wire & Iron, have the potential to expand their workforce by taking advantage of the training opportunities that the Swan Island Training Center provides.

For more information about this vital program and how to apply, go to http://www.pcc.edu/programs/welding or call 503-247-1724.

Workforce Network

Workforce Network is a division of Portland Community College. WORKFORCE NETWORK is an organization committed to finding solutions to optimize workforce performance. Serving the needs of Portland's North and Northeast regions, we specialize in helping businesses fulfill their human resource needs and jobseekers in their career development.

Onsite services that we have are:

• Career Center: it is equipped with 25 computers, copy machine, and fax machine to assist our community member to search for jobs, e-mail the potential employers, and develop resumes and cover letters. All these services are at no cost to our valued community members.
• 3 Computer Labs: they are equipped with up-to-date software and technology. In these labs we run computer classes, and the business community can have access to them as well.
• Auditorium: it can hold up to 150 people. It is equipped with up-to-date technology for presentation such as: wireless access to internet for presentations, big screen, DVD, VHS, etc.
• Every Friday we host "Employment Market Place" where employers get to present their businesses to a large audience of potential employees.

Also, every year we hold a Job Fair and host a minimum of 32 employers and hundreds of job seekers.

For further information, please visit our Web site at: wfn.pcc.edu

Express Employment Professionals

The St. Johns office of Express Employment Professionals is a staffing service that helps individuals in North and Northeast Portland find quality employment through coaching and development of their resume, interview techniques, and job search. Express employs people to work short-term and long-term assignments in administrative, accounting and commercial industries.

Express is a dynamic organization with over 600 franchise offices worldwide. Each office is individually owned, an arrangement that promotes a sense of pride in each team’s work to help people find the right jobs and companies to find the right people. Suzanne Smith, owner of the St. Johns office since 2003, has been in the industry and the community for over 14 yrs.

Suzanne Smith
Owner
8444 N Ivanhoe
Portland OR 97203
503.735.1200
503.735.9656 fax
suzanne.smith@expresspros.com

Urban Opportunities

Urban Opportunities (UO) is an after-school enrichment program dedicated to preparing Portland area at-risk youth with accredited workforce employment training, real-life work experience internships, and lifelong job-readiness skills. We recently partnered with Voodoo Doughnuts and now have a bright pink van from which we travel and sell drinks and the famous Voodoo Doughnuts. This is a non-profit "social entrepreneurship" that employs some graduates of the UO program with ALL proceeds going back into the organization. We intend to employ up to 20 youth per year.

Polly Bangs/Urban Opportunities - Partner of Impact NW
10055 E. Burnside
Portland, OR 97216
(503) 988-6000 ext. 234
www.urbanopportunities.net