Green Collar Jobs Training Program Update (7/20/09)

Time sure does fly by! It's officially the last week of the Green Collar Jobs Training Program. On this very beautiful day, with clear blue skies and a perfect view of the top of Mauna Kea, the trainees are again working at the Just Cruisin Coffee shop.

The online sustainability workers are feeling quite different than they did on Friday and rather than wanting to be indoors to avoid the rain, they would rather be outside working in the nice, sunny weather. However, with the shop running on air conditioning and free samples of the smoothies and coffee drinks at hand, they really can't complain. Who said online sustainable jobs aren't amazing?

Online Workers completing daily tasks at the Just Cruisin Coffee Shop.

Offline trainees taking a break from maintenance work on the coffee shop property.

Meanwhile the offline sustainability workers used the knowledge and skills they gained at the Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resource Center and planted kalo around the Just Cruisin Coffee property. They also raked the premises to make it look even better.

Brent also dedicated this week to giving short introductory courses to the online sustainability crew about topics they were interested in such as computer applications, online marketing, and the internet in general. Today trainees asked about Search Engine Optimization, commonly known as SEO, and he taught them some tricks to increase website, blog, etc. standings when being search by engines such as google, yahoo, etc.

Daily Tips and Lessons:

1. Take advantage of the beautiful weather!
2. Use sites like websitegrader.com to assess your website's search standings.
3. Make sure to define meta description and meta keywords to increase search standings.
4. The more incoming links you have the more site visits your website may get, further increasing your search standings.
   

Green Collar Jobs Training Program Update (7/17/09)

The last few days were a bit difficult due to a combination of the lack of available resources and job opportunities. However, the tides have turned today and someone has a need for the Green Collar Jobs Training Program. The worksite is also located in area that doesn't require a lot of travel, gas, and gas money, so it's a perfect worksite candidate for the Green Collar Job Training Program. The offline sustainability trainees are working at the Just Crusin Coffee shop location in Hilo, near the the county buildings. Trainees are working on property beautification, which is just a pretty term for the tedious work they had weeding the property.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so cooperative with overcast skies and and occasional showers, but the online workers did get to enjoy the comforts inside of the coffee shop. There they continued daily tasks, and with the program coming to an end are working on putting finishing touches on all the things they have documented and created over the past six weeks.

Green Collar Jobs Training Program Update (7/16/09)

Today was a fairly simple day being that the offline sustainability workers had a "day off." With no worked planned, there was really no reason for workers to come into the office or waste personal gas money just to get into Hilo. Also the hours the workers would be available to work made it difficult because trainees also had to attend a meeting set up the the Hawai‘i Workforce Development office. Because the program is about in end in a week, the Workforce Development advisers gave trainees a class on how to increase their success in finding, applying, and interviewing for a job. Many of the trainees will be going back to school when this the Green Collar Jobs Training Programs ends, and given the current economy some will also have to work jobs at the same time. It's difficult, but they will take with them a new and improved list of skills and knowledge that they either gained or refined as the result of the Green Collar Jobs Training Program!

Although some of the workers did have the "day off", other workers, a.k.a. the online sustainability workers, still had to come into the office and continue daily task of updating websites, writing blogs, and client work. It's just another day in the office, but they can't complain because it's work nonetheless and work is very hard to find in this current economy.

Green Collar Jobs Training Program Update (7/15/09)

Today was a very difficult day in terms of work for the offline sustainability trainees, basically because there was no work. Joe Bernade is injured and can not come into work to be a worksite supervisor. What was a day planned for work at the Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resource Center became a day to brainstorm other sustainable work opportunities. It was very difficult because the Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resource Center was the fallback plan if the Earthship and greenhouse plans fell through because of gas money, so workers were very frustrated at the unfortunate events and even more disappointed when they had to end their work day early. However, before they left they did take some time to brainstorm other work options. Some of the ideas included working for Hawai‘i Parks and Recreation to help clean up and maintain the local beaches. Other plans included networking with friends and family who might need labor workers. So far nothing has been booked, but phone calls and contacts are being made. If you have or know of someone who could use the Green Collar Jobs Training Program trainees feel free to contact us with your proposition.