Cosmos Employment Connections program aims to provide opportunities to individuals facing barriers, enhance quality of life, and promote recognition of individual value. (Supplied)

By Sheldon Spackman

Government Funded Program

Cosmos Employment Connection Program helping locals overcome employment barriers

Aug 31, 2021 | 9:46 AM

A local initiative aimed at facilitating career and employment success for those facing barriers to employment is seeing strong results in central Alberta.

The Cosmos Employment Connection (CEC) Program is funded by the government of Alberta, and provides access to employment training, life skills, computer literacy training, safety training, and job shadowing opportunities.

Ana Saskowski, Public Relations and Marketing Associate with the Cosmos Group of Companies, says the barriers to employment some individuals face, can be those that are self-identified and not necessarily disabilities.

“This could be any sort of barrier, even anxiety, or mental health issues, poverty or job loss,” explains Saskowski. “It’s a six-week program. You’re not married to it, so you can leave. We consider it a success once you find a job.”

“They can choose to come back to do some of the other training if they want to and often times they will,” she continues. “But the main goal is to just help people facing barriers find employment.”

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Others who also qualify for the program include new Canadians facing language or computer literacy barriers, if you are currently unemployed and looking for work, or continued education and opportunities.

In terms of what to expect, the program offers practical skills training, soft skills training, safety training, and ongoing support.

“The program basically consists of the standard stuff that you would think of, like resume building, mock interviews with our employment practitioners,” says Saskowski. “They also have some personal development courses that you can take. We have all kinds of them here in our computer lab. So it’s totally optional, they can go through and pick what they want to take, if any of them.”

Saskowski says the Cosmos Employment Connection (CEC) Program is open to those aged 18+ and just began a new session on Aug. 30, with the next one starting Sept. 20, and the final session beginning Oct. 4.

She notes, however, the program will wrap up sometime in November.

“We’re still doing intakes, but our last session had 12 individuals in it, and eight of them as of Friday, had full-time work and five were in the interviewing process,” Saskowski shares. “So we anticipate that we’ll have 100 per cent success again. The previous program before that was 100 per cent as well.”

Saskowski says the program further promotes resilience in the individuals who take part.

“Our last program, we had an individual come through who was experiencing homelessness,” she recalls. “He was literally living in the shelter and by the end of the program, he had housing, he has a job. So I think it’s a super important program and has the ability to change lives.”