(KGTV) - San Diegans looking to find a new job - or get a better one - will soon have a new resource to help them get there.
Goodwill Industries San Diego is finishing a more than 4,000 square-foot job training center in San Ysidro, which it plans to open Sept. 13.
The $500,000 facility is replacing the organization's rack store at 630 Front St. in San Ysidro, which moved to a new location. The center will offer free career counseling, meeting spaces for interviews, open computers, and even job fairs - all free to San Diegans looking for work, or a bigger paycheck.
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"So even if they get a job, that job that just puts food on the table, we want them to continue to come to us so that we can support them, so they can get that better job," said Toni Giffin, CEO of Goodwill Industries of San Diego County.
The state reports that there are still about 58,000 San Diegans who are unemployed, even with the jobless rate near a record low of 3.7 percent. That number does not include San Diegans who would like more hours, or whose jobs don't pay enough to make ends meet.
Ken Joy, 75, is currently living with his sister in La Mesa. Social Security is his only income. He would like to move out, but first, he needs a job.
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"I want to do something four hours or five hours a day part time, and have time to do things that I enjoy doing otherwise," said Joy, who is honing his computer skills at one of Goodwill's other job training centers.
Goodwill currently has four job training centers in the county - in Oceanside, Escondido, Point Loma, and Chula Vista. That Chula Vista location, on Broadway, will close when the new center in San Ysidro opens.
Goodwill also offers training in the following areas:
- Communication basics
- Hiring event preparation
- Conflict resolution
- Computer basics
- Interview skills
