The more celebrated politicians carefully choose their appearances. Grade B outings don’t quality. The Fox Hills Mall program must have been a B.
To gain a mention without having to make an appearance, the politicians dispatched nicely dressed deputy-types who make a living traveling to Grade B programs. Deputy-types are instructed to find innovative ways to say the event was not important enough to warrant the presence of their flouncy bosses.
What the flouncy bosses missed was the opening act of an obviously needed jobs program that appears to be chiefly designed for persons at both ends of the work spectrum — sixteen-to-twenty-three-year-olds and senior citizens.
In actuality, anyone who “feels a need for employment” is invited to the new Customer Service Learning Center on the second level of the Fox Hills Mall, across the aisle from the corporate offices.
The first class enters next week.
Learning the most rudimentary retail skill — “how to deal with the public” — is at the heart of the educational program. Students also will be trained in everyday transactional skills and in the use of a cash register.
Customer service was described as being at a premium today. “Customers will pay for good service,” one spokesperson said.
“Once our students have completed the course, they should be qualified to go in any of several career paths. We may direct them toward the airline industry, maybe toward fast food, maybe toward the hotel industry.”
About That Modest Fellow
Which finally brings the story around to sharp but passed-over gentleman in the rear of the room.
The whole scheme, it seems, was the brainchild of the modest inventor, Dwayne Wyatt. As a bureaucrat with the Planning Dept. of Los Angeles, he is accustomed to being overlooked. Not that he was complaining. He definitely was not.
In passing, Mr. Wyatt’s name was mentioned,offhandedly, at last week’s inauguration ceremony, similar to the way you drop a penny on the sidewalk and decline to retrieve it because it is only a penny.
He turns out to be quite a fellow, the ultimate hometowner. A graduate of Los Angeles High School, Los Angeles City College and UCLA, he describes himself as an idea person.
Since no child ever has been known to announce that he wants to grow up and be an idea person, Mr. Wyatt was asked to describe the trajectory of his early life.
As a child, he said, “I had a vivid imagination.”
From there, the next logical step was to mature into an idea man.
His role in the day’s centerpiece program began as it ended, rather obscurely.
As a member of the Southeast Task Force of the Planning Dept., Mr. Wyatt is charged with stimulating “unserved communities.”
Two and a half years ago, he was asked by the Los Angeles chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People to think up a replacement for its job-preparation center, whose funding was running out.
Mr. Wyatt met with Rick Conroy of the Crenshaw Chamber of Commerce and an NAACP representative. They brainstormed.
The Path to a Jobs Program
Mr. Wyatt had heard that the National Retail Federation, the trade group for retail businesses across the country, bolstered by a grant from the U.S. Labor Dept., had been opening Skills Centers since 1997.
When he inquired, the Retail Federation told Mr. Wyatt that of course it was interested in a Los Angeles opening because the local market would be plump with the kind of persons they serve.
A steering committee comprised of several community organizations was formed, and two years later, the first Customer Service Learning Center was ready to be unveiled at the Fox Hills Mall.
Mr. Wyatt’s direct-track career program is eight weeks long, and this is the cherry on the cake:
Officials of the Center will help them find work. They did not say “guarantee,” but it sounded close to that.
“We will help our graduates identify employment opportunities,” Mr. Wyatt said.
How specific is the notion of “identifying” prospective jobs?
“Our strength,” he explained, “is that we are certified from (and co-sponsored by) the National Retail Federation, the trade association. Therefore our members (of the Retail Federation) will give our graduates priority. They will recruit at the Skills Center.
“That will give us a unique relationship that most job-training programs will not have.”