The Job Upgrade Program provides career-planning services, professional skills training, and job placements in order to improve employment for motivated and skilled refugees. This program allows a chance to involve the refugee, take more time to find the right placement, and to be coordinated with specific training activities. Outcomes show that Job Upgrade services help refugees to look more positively towards the future, give them greater access to the American culture, take them out of dead-end jobs, and lead to better mental health. This program provides training, case management, and placement services primarily to TANF recipients, but will also include refugees that face similar barriers such as no work experience or no applicable skills.
Most beneficiaries are single mothers that face lifetime limits on public assistance.
The group meets daily for 6-8 weeks to receive services, address barriers, attend training sessions, and develop job skills. After all barriers have been overcome, the group is placed in two to three companies, thus allowing TANF clients to continue working together to solve problems. From August 1999 to May 2000, IRC has assisted 75 single parents through this program. An IRC needs assessments with youth and their families revealed that students want to work to contribute to family income, to improve their English, and to gain responsibility. IRC partnered with local employers and placed 39 students in jobs.