Jim Warren, Mature Alaskans Seeking Skills Training (MASST) program.
National Employ Older Workers Week, held annually the last full week of September, recognizes the vital role of older workers in the workforce. It also showcases the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), which provides on-the-job skills training to individuals age 55 or older with limited financial resources. Since its inception, SCSEP has helped over one million older Americans enter the workforce. In Alaska, we call SCSEP by another name, Mature Alaskans Seeking Skills Training (MASST), but the goals are the same across the country.
Over the past 20 years, the percentage of workers over the age of 55 has risen to 25%, nearly twice the number in the year 2000. It's clear that this growth will continue, along with the fact that more and more seniors are delaying their retirement or re-entering the workforce after a brief retirement. Economics aren't the only factor driving these trends; older workers enjoy new possibilities in employment and find new paths to meaningful engagement in their communities.
The MASST program promotes community engagement at the same time that it helps seniors learn new skills and polish old ones. We know that employers value older workers for their punctuality, judgment and experience, and MASST values and develops those same qualities.
Pairing agencies and trainees
For the past year, I have been learning how to coordinate the MASST program in the Northern and Interior regions of the state. It's a huge geographical area, and while it is difficult to reach elders in the northlands, many have found their way to Fairbanks. In a way, I'm an example of a senior who is finding a new path in the employment world. After 40 years as a teacher, I'm learning how to manage senior participants and match them up with host sites that need their help.
In Fairbanks, we have a number of nonprofit agencies who regularly take on MASST participants in training assignments. The Community Food Bank, the Central Recycling Facility, and Forget-Me-Not Bookstore are three stalwart agencies, but there are a dozen more who accept one or two seniors for training. For many participants, this means remembering the skills you already have. The Baby Boomers may imagine that everyone knows how to be polite, listen attentively, put the customer or client first, meet them where they are, and respond with flexibility and care. But it turns out that seniors actually know these things better than most folks.
A lifetime of experience
One insight my MASST participants have given me is that we can't always keep the hours and the energy we had when we were 25 years old. Sometimes I tell them about the summer I worked with my uncle on his dairy farm in Michigan. My uncle had been in poor health, and he was 35 years older than I was, a healthy 20-year-old student. But when we would use pitchforks to muck out stalls, I would be only halfway done with my stall when I started hearing my uncle's pitchfork ringing against the concrete floor of his stall. He was smaller and older, but he was skilled and experienced. And he could pace himself through a long day, before sunrise to after sunset.
MASST seniors have a lot of those skills and experience. Many have had full careers in the workforce, and now they find themselves cutting back and retooling because of physical limitations or family obligations. I'm thinking of one of my amazing participants who works at the Fairbanks DMV. She uses an electric wheelchair to get around in, and she manages her schedule so that she can also care for her preschool great-grandson. Yes, great-grandson. Or a tiny woman who was a cashier at the army base for 30 years. She uses Van Tran to get to her assignment at the Fairbanks Rescue Mission, where she trains as a receptionist and administrative assistant.
Both of these participants attend a digital literacy class I offer in the Job Center on Thursday mornings. They are excellent students, developing the skills they need for the world we live in nowadays.
Challenges, not barriers
Sometimes I look at my participants and think about the obstacles or barriers they face in our community. But for most of them, they show me that they try to find possibilities, even in problems. They see the challenges, but they don't give up. One of my favorite stories is the participant whose hearing was so bad that he really was not following the instructions at the host agency, simply because he couldn't hear them. But we found him a match at another host site, where he operates a cardboard baler like the expert he is. He is in the process of upgrading his hearing aids and expanding his duties at the host agency. Meanwhile, he and I get together periodically to talk about job prospects in the area. He is really good at what he does, and the host agency staff love him, and I am hoping to move him into regular employment before the first frost.
Jim Warren is the MASST Coordinator for Alaska's Northern and Interior Regions.
Regional MASST offices
Anchorage Region: Midtown Job Center
A'isha Jackson
3301 Eagle St., Suite 103, Anchorage, AK 99510-99503
(907) 269-2029 or 907 269-4805, Fax (907) 269-4876
Gulf Region: Peninsula (Kenai) Job Center
Laurie Cowgill
11312 Kenai Spur Highway, Suite 2, Kenai, AK 99611
(907) 335-3005, Fax (907) 335-3050
lauriec@serrc.org
Mat-Su Region: Mat-Su Job Center
Melanie Pitka
877 Commercial Drive, Wasilla, AK 99654-6937
(907) 433-7424
melaniep@serrc.org
Northern and Interior Regions: Fairbanks Job Center
Jim Warren
675 7th Ave., Station B, Fairbanks, AK 99701-4531
(907) 451-5918, Fax (907) 451-2919
jimw@serrc.org
Southeast Region: Southeast Regional Resource Center
Stacy Kimbrough
210 Ferry Way, Juneau, AK 99801
(907) 433-7402, Fax (907) 463-3811
stacyk@serrc.org
