MISSION COLLEGE : Program on Career Information

Laid-off workers and students uncertain about future employment can obtain information on a new technical or vocational career Dec. 10 at Mission College.

The free program, “Focus on Careers,” will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the instructional building of the Sylmar campus.

It will feature short seminars, and business representatives and teachers will be available to help guide participants to the right careers.

“What we try to do is assess them and place them where their skills are,” said Eloise Fernando-Cantrell, the college’s dean of vocational and technical education.

Seminars will include “Finding the Perfect Career Fit” and “Jobs of the Future.” Although no jobs will be offered, business and industry representatives will disseminate information on a variety of careers, including insurance, finance, law enforcement and health care.

“Students can say, ‘Hey, I like this job. I can do this job. This is the job I need. These are the qualifications I need, and this is the teacher who can give me the skills for the job,’ ” Cantrell said.

To help direct students to their career matches, Mission’s vocational disciplines include computer science, engineering, electronics, food service technology, family and consumer studies and legal assisting. The college also offers child development, real estate, office administration, supervision, office administration, accounting and a program to train counselors to work with the chemically dependent.

The program, coordinated by the college’s New Horizons Center for adults returning to school, already has helped some displaced workers with new careers.

Student Catalina Campos, 41, had been studying English after being laid off as a factory manager when she attended the first “Focus on Careers” program in September.

Now, she plans to become a chef.

“They helped me focus my future,” Campos said. “Everybody has a great opportunity here at Mission College to have a new career or improve their studies.”