The Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy (CBAL) wants to help women in or approaching midlife to identify their skills and passions and channel them into building a fulfilling career.

After running a shorter version of the course last year, CBAL was so encouraged by feedback from the participants that CBAL decided to offer an intensive program – Spotlight on Change: Empowering Yourself for Employment – that will run twice a week for eight weeks starting on Tuesday, November 19th.

“The feedback from the participants was very positive,” said community literacy coordinator Sandy Kalesnikoff. “They all felt that they left this program with a strong sense of their personal skills, along with the confidence and knowledge to make positive changes in their employment.”

CBAL’s Community Literacy Planning Committee is working to help adults get to work or be happier at work, and skilling-up workers is one of their goals for the coming year.

She hopes the program will help each woman: “identify her abilities based on her experiences, her aptitudes and interests and to map out a future for herself for her life in general and in particular her work life,” she said. “A participant in the Spotlight on Change program better understands herself, her skills, her goals, and her community as they relate to finding work. She applies the essential skills required for work, learning and life to enact change and to move closer to her employment goals.”

The free eight-week program for women who are interested in changing their career paths will begin on the morning of Tuesday, November 19th. Classes will run from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The program will also “help women develop a strong sense of who they are, what they are passionate about, realize their personal skill set and use it to create a promising future,” she said.

To register, contact Leanne Brooks at [email protected] or call 250-341-5683.

“I enjoy hearing the feedback of how a program like this makes a difference to someone’s life,” Ms. Kalesnikoff said. “It is rewarding to know that a CBAL program helped someone gain skills and the confidence to create a new, exciting future for themselves.”