Madison County Employment and Training To Reopen Offices To Public July 1
WOOD RIVER — Madison County Employment and Training is set to reopen its offices by appointment next week.
“Starting July 1, our office will start seeing people again in person,” Director of Employment and Training Tony Fuhrmann said. “All precautions are being taken to ensure the health and safety of the public and our staff.”
Fuhrmann said regular cleaning is taking place along with other safety measures to include disinfecting common areas, placing disposable plastic over the keyboards, enforcing the face-covering mandate and limiting the number of people allowed in the office.
Appointments can be made online at www.co.madison.il.us/departments/employment_and_training or by phone at (618) 296-4301. Once an appointment is made, customers will receive an email confirmation of their appointment time and instructions on how and when to enter the building.
Fuhrmann said there are a variety of services available to job seekers at the Wood River office. He said for people who prefer the self-directed approach, computers with internet access and user-friendly resume writing software is available for a scheduled 90-minute limit.
The resource room includes information on up-to-date job postings, classified ads from local papers, reference documents for help with resumes, cover letters, interviews and business directories.
Fuhrmann said for job seekers needing more guidance in their search or career path, career specialists are on call each day offering training and job search advice, resume assistance and to refer people to either a more intensive job search workshop, training orientation or another agency as necessary.
“Online videos and virtual options for job search workshops and training orientations will be available on our newly updated website,” he said.
Employment and Training also has free services for area employers including: creation and distribution of job postings, marketing initiatives for hiring events, grant funding for workforce training and applicant testing. While no onsite recruiting events are currently being scheduled at the office, business services representatives are on-hand to assist with developing Virtual Job Fair events.
Illinoisworknet.com has also created a Virtual Job Fair platform on its website that is available for businesses to utilize. For more information on the Virtual Job Fair Booths, employers may visit: http://illinoisworknet.com/VirtualJobFairs/Pages/AddBooth.aspx.
At this time, state staff from the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) will not be returning to the office for in-person assistance. As before, Employment and Training staff are unable to assist with filing for unemployment benefits or answer any questions concerning a person’s UI benefits.
Customers requiring Unemployment Insurance services should contact the IDES call center at (800) 244-5631 or visit the website at www.ides.illinois.gov.
For more information about any of employment and training services, or to access the online appointment scheduler, please visit the website at https://www.co.madison.il.us/departments/employment_and_training.
