California Employment Development Department
The Instructor Frederick M. Buyer Background
Degrees in Mathematics and Business with a focus in Management. Involved in business-oriented brain research and applications since 1982. While working for General Electric Space Systems, applied that research and knowledge in many successful ways as a Program Manager. I was particularly interested and focused in personal development, organizational design, and communications. Post retirement, a plan was formulated to transfer that research and applications experience through community service to those who would most benefit—the unemployed. In April, 1993, three EDD training centers were approached and offered a series of courses. An introductory speech was given at all three centers to allow the administrators to gage the interest of their clients and evaluate the material. The responses were favorable, and the program proceeded. Community service concluded in April, 2002. During this period, substantial information was accumulated and experience gained which was applied to subsequent research on the human species.
EDD training center description
At the time, they numbered around 29 throughout the state. The centers are funded by the State Employment Development Department (EDD) to help unemployed professionals find employment. Activities included skill assessment, job hunting support, training for interviewing and career-planning. The EDD funded a state employee or liaison reporting to a state manager. A physical office was provided along with supplies and equipment. Each center relies on the experience base of its current clients to conduct in-house training sessions. They are required to give a minimum of hours of volunteer work per month. For example, if they have a finance person currently going through the process, they will ask of him or her to conduct training on financial topics for the group. Workshops are varied and depend on the expertise [current skill and experience base] of the members who volunteer to teach them.
The mission of these centers is to provide unemployed professionals with a “tool kit” of skills that they can draw upon in their current and future employment activities, with physical resources to aid them their activities, and networking support in their search for employment. The centers teach a credo of self-reliance to job-seekers to overcome self-imposed barriers and to give them lifelong skills for the job search process. The centers consist of professional men and women within a spectrum of ages and occupations. They are out of work in a dynamic job environment. This type of support organization not only helps the membership find employment; it also provides them with a psychological environment of mutual support.
The unemployed professionals are highly motivated to learn something new, especially if it helps them find another job.
EDD Education and Training Program
Of all the mental assets an individual brings to the workplace, the most important is their thinking style. Ref: the brain operations model SCP. and the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument HBDM. I offered training in individual and group understanding of thinking styles and their effect in the workplace. This consisted of Level One training concerning brain operations and usage that was focused on the workplace: Self-understanding; Career planning; Interviewing Communications and Relationships.
Level Two training centered on the use of the mind (consciousness) for situational use of one's mental assets: Knowledge production and situational usage; Self-management & management of others; Life Span Development; Career Change Management; Elders (over 45); Present Moment Awareness—the personal point of power; Tools and techniques: meditation, visualization, daydreaming, etc. I also provided a selection of related speeches for General Session Speeches.
The training sequence was designed to first help the clients become aware of their individual thinking styles, then teach them to recognize the thinking styles of others, jobs, and work place thinking cultures. Through encapsulated presentations and group exercises we focused on building the motivation to develop win-win situations using this awareness
The approach was to reach as many as time, interest and capacity/motivation to learn allows. The program consisted of a series of presentations and workshops progressing from the general to the specific needs of the clients. Presentations are constructed to meet their needs and are interlaced with experiential moments, humor, poignant quotes and inter-module transitions.
Timing was important because clients flow in and out of contact in response to job interviews, leaving the program for jobs, the six-month limitation, or other circumstances. The level of interest in participation in self-awareness and self-assessment activities filtered the initial presentation group. The motivation to learn addition skills for their "tool kits" filtered even more clients out. At each stage of the sequence, a more open and intense set of clients appeared and the material presented was more tailored to their needs.
