ROGUE VALLEY, Ore. — As thousands of Oregonians remain unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Rogue Workforce Partnership launched a website to assist residents in exploring and applying to new careers.
Worksource Rogue Valley, the local employment department branch, launched the website at the beginning of the year and has since expanded the site to include the vast number of job opportunities available in a variety of industries in need of employees.
“We have identified six targeted sectors that we focus on, those are sectors that important to the valley, they give great opportunity and have good wages,” Joe Spagnualo, the business and employment specialist for Worksource Rogue Valley said.
Spagnualo explained the sectors include, advanced manufacturing, construction, healthcare, information technology and e-commerce, transportation and logistics, wildland firefighting, and forestry.
“We have now added childcare and child education because of the increase in recent demand,” Spagnualo said.
He said on the agency’s website, each job sector has a video included to show people what each job entails.
“The goal of the page is to connect people with jobs and careers, through training and education pathways,” he said. “We are trying to educate them on what they don’t know and further their careers.”
Spagnualo shared the agency has been working diligently to make the site accessible to all residents. He explained once a person registers on the agency’s website, they can choose which language they prefer.
“The website was designed to be a very easy to use medium to get information on opportunities right here in the Rogue Valley, it's mobile-optimized, you can access all the different pages on your mobile device, it’s simple to use,” Spagnualo said.
He said the site also includes a career planning page with information on future workshops and training, the site also includes an assessment called Traitify, and a resume-building called job scan.
Spagnualo said the website is always evolving to meet the need of both employers and employees in the region.