Training program ‘is not working’

Monday, March 13, 2006 | 7:17 a.m.

Arnaldo Font wanted a second job as a bartender to help meet his responsibilities as the divorced father of a 5-year-old girl.

So when an official at a state employment office described a free 80-hour training course as a step toward getting a job at the soon-to-be-opened Red Rock Casino, he thought it was worth the loss of income he'd face by taking time off.

"You have to sacrifice something to get something," he remembers thinking.

During the course, Community College of Southern Nevada administrators came to the classroom at least three times to tell students the certificate that would come with completing the course would not only help them at Red Rock, but at the 13 other Station Casinos properties, he said.

They said his name would be "highlighted" if he filled out an application.

When he finally got to the Summerlin casino - scheduled to open April 18 - Font mentioned the course but interviewers "didn't know what I was talking about," he said.

The 36-year-old Font - who has been a bartender for five years - was sent on his way with the "we'll let you know." He has yet to hear.

He is not alone.

As of March 1, according to figures supplied by the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board - the organization that channels the money to CCSN - 232 people had taken the course. Of those, Station Casinos, which is a partner in the grant, has hired eight.

CCSN officials would not comment.

Lori Nelson, spokeswoman for Station Casinos, said that the grant is supposed to fund "a job-training program" and that it "doesn't guarantee a job."

She also said her company's figures showed that 12 people had been hired as of Friday - of 121 who had "come through our doors" after finishing the training. Nineteen of them did not pass background checks, she noted.

But Chester Richardson, vice chairman of the Workforce Investment Board, said the $1.1 million, three-year grant isn't working out the way it should.

"The initiative is not working for the person walking in off the street who hopes to get a job at the end of the training," Richardson said.

"The concept is that the training would result in them being placed in a job with Station Casinos. That's not happening," he said. Richardson said a board committee he sits on that evaluates how the organization's grants are doing will be meeting soon to choose one of three recommendations:

Meanwhile, he said, the board will try to work with other casinos to see if there's interest in hiring the hundreds of people who have already been through the training.

Van Heffner, president and chief executive of the Nevada Hotel & Lodging Association - another partner in the grant - said the training should be useful for getting work at other casinos.

"I'm trying to help people obtain skills and get their foot in the door - if not in one property, then in another," he said.

Nelson said there were "hiccups" at the beginning of the program, but that they have since been worked out.

Several people administering the program have said in recent weeks that the initiative is a demonstration grant and that it stretches out over three years, beginning with 500 off-the-street participants but slated to include training with the same curriculum of up to 10,000 existing Station Casinos workers.

Existing workers will be more equipped to scale the company ladder after the training. Plus, the training only began in December; it's too soon to evaluate whether or not the grant is working, they say.

But Richardson said his board has an "ethical responsibility" to make sure the hundreds that have been through or will soon take the training are getting what they hoped for - jobs.

Marilyn Palma hasn't been able to get her foot in the door for several months. Palma, 55, worked 10 years as a pit clerk in casinos before being told her position would be eliminated by the end of last year.

In December, she decided to take a chance on the course. Every day for two weeks, she took the class from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Valley View Boulevard and Sahara Avenue, and drove over to Rampart Boulevard and Summerlin Parkway for her 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift.

Her teacher told the seven students taking the course they "would get interviews" at Red Rock. "Make sure you show them your certificate," he said.

But when she went to the Summerlin property in mid-January, "all they did was take my resume," Palma said.

She showed Station Casinos staff her certificate from the course and was told to hold onto it until after the interview.

Two months later, Palma still hasn't heard from Red Rock. Not only that, she's gone to four other casinos and found they had little interest in the training.

"Everywhere I go I say I have a certificate - because I think it means something. But nobody ever asks to see it ... My certificate means nothing," she said.

Finally, she gave up the whole idea and answered an ad from a local nonprofit organization. She starts work there Monday.