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Mature Services, Inc. provides community-based services to train, motivate, and empower mature job-seekers. The organization maintains active partnerships with employers, which leads to increased opportunities for mature workers.
Based in Akron, Ohio, Mature Services now has eight Mature Services’ Employment & Training Solutions Centers throughout the state to provide job training. It also provides temporary and permanent job placement for seniors through its Mature Staffing Systems program.
To date, through its training and job placement services, Mature Services has provided:
Mature Services needed a way to assess the ability levels of individuals enrolling in its training programs. The organization decided to use online assessments, to help mature job-seekers overcome the difficulties they had encountered in taking online standardized tests when they applied for work. In addition, many of the critical skills seniors needed to develop were computer-based.
When Mature Services looked for an online assessment company, they chose eSkill, because they found that it provided the most flexibility in creating their own tests, and offered a much wider range of subject areas than other online testing companies, as well as flexibility in distribution and reporting tools.
It started with just a typing test, but eSkill’s wide range of testing products, ease of use, and compelling price point, as well as the ability to customize content, made a longer-term partnership a natural choice.
For the past four years, Mature Services has used eSkill online assessments to observe and measure job-seekers’ comfort levels with using a computer, as well as their skill levels for specific fields of employment.
Mature Services has used eSkill’s extensive database of question to create assessments in the following skill areas, among others.
Individuals who take the eSkill assessments before and after specific Mature Services training programs experience a boost in confidence when they see their improved scores, and this carries through in their willingness and success in future training.
Overall, eSkill offers the necessary tools for Mature Services to develop a specialized learning environment for senior job seekers to improve their skills and be more comfortable in job interview situations. This, in turn, means that they’ve been more successful in gaining employment in the following fields:
To meet funding requirements, Mature Services needed to manage the test centers for each of its eight training facilities separately. Using eSkill’s multi-location subscription, the organization has benefitted from reduced costs overall, while maintaining each center’s independence.
Mature Services provides a diverse range of programs for seniors in Ohio. The Avenues to Recovery program offers services like mental health counseling as well as alcohol, drug and gambling prevention and treatment. The Homecare program provides cleaning, meal preparation, laundry, bathing, shopping and personal care for older adults and individuals with disabilities who need support.In addition, its Supportive Services program helps older adults locate programs they qualify for. The Nutrition program helps provide regularly-delivered meals to older adults at their home or at congregate sites across Summit County, as well as providing emergency food orders to those who are in need. The RSVP Volunteer program provides volunteers ages 55 and older to local organizations such as: the food bank, hospitals, museums and many more community groups to assist with daily operations and special projects.
For more information about Mature Services, go to www.matureservices.org.
Click HERE to view Case Study.
“Using eSkill assessments results in a more effective screening for skill level, and that allows us to tailor future training more accurately to the needs of the individual.
It enhances the overall training environment to have a neutral tool that shows a participant where they are in terms of skill level. Sometimes people who have been out of work for a long time, or who are beginning in a new career area, find it hard to believe they actually are growing in ability. They tend to distrust verbal praise, but the test scores are impersonal, and therefore more believable. Other times they are convinced that their skill level is higher than it actually is, and a testing tool like this can help them realize where they are weak and encourage them to get the needed training.
And the people we have dealt with at eSkill have always been helpful when we had a challenge.“
Kathleen McLaughlin, Marketing and Communications Manager, Mature Services
