WEOP partners with Atlanta Technical College

By Laura Raines

For AJC Jobs

The Women’s Employment Opportunity Project (WEOP) has provided women with technology-based solutions, training and skills to help them find jobs for 11 years. With Georgia’s unemployment rate at about 10 percent, finding jobs is a challenge.

“What do you do when you can’t find a job and your unemployment funding runs out?” asked Antionette Ball, founder of WEOP. “You reinvent yourself as an independent contractor, freelancer or consultant. With jobs harder to come by, more job seekers need to learn how to work for themselves.”

Ball has discovered many resources, workshops and courses to help people start a business; most focused on writing a business plan and securing funding.

“Our clients didn’t necessarily need to start a business, but they needed to learn entrepreneurial skills and good business practices,” Ball said. “If they couldn’t find work, we wanted to empower them to make something happen for themselves.”

Ball and her sister, Marionette, WEOP director of operations and programs, envisioned a “nuts-and-bolts” program to teach job seekers how to work as independent contractors. The idea found a partner with the economic development and continuing education division at Atlanta Technical College.

WEOP and Atlanta Tech partnered to launch the Independent Contractor’s Professional program, starting on Sept. 9. The eight-week course, which is open to men and women, will run on Thursdays from 6 to 8:30 p.m.

“This program specifically targets what we’re calling the ‘new worker,’ someone with skills and experience who is looking to use them as an independent contractor, freelancer, consultant or entrepreneur,” Ball said.

She knows a graphic designer, for example, who recently graduated from college only to find that companies weren’t hiring. She designed a Web site, took on pro bono work with some nonprofits to build a portfolio and is now marketing her skills to companies and clients on a project-by-project basis.

These “new workers” must first learn a different way of thinking, Ball said. Instead of seeking posted job opportunities, they must learn to create their own.

“This program will help them begin to think strategically in order to find clients and market their skill sets to the best advantage,” she said. “We’ll show them how to prospect for clients and business opportunities online. They may be able to qualify for minority business grants or government contracts, and we’ll show them how to find those.”

The program introduces students to various technology platforms and software that can be used to network with prospective business sources. They also learn to organize their work and maximize efficiency when dealing with multiple clients or projects.

“They’ll see the kind of forms and programs they’ll need to set up their accounting, record expenditures, create contracts, invoice clients and file their taxes,” Ball said.

Guest speakers will include an attorney, a federal contracts specialist and a project manager who will share the basic skills and best business practices needed to manage work successfully.

“Students will also benefit from networking with each other. They may even hear about work opportunities in other industries as students share what they do,” she said.

Students who successfully complete the 20 hours of instruction receive 2.0 continuing education credit units and a certificate as an independent contractor professional.

If you’re interested in learning more about the program, Atlanta Technical College will host an open house on Aug. 26 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Dennard Conference Center (Room 117).

Total tuition for the program is $495. To register, call the Atlanta Tech Continuing Education Department at 404-225-4487.

To learn more about WEOP, go to www.weop.org.

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