There's help retooling for a new career

So, Baker went to the One-Stop Career Center in Norwood, one of 37 Massachusetts Department of Workforce Development sites that help job seekers find training and the financial assistance to pay for it. Baker discovered she was eligible for a $5,000 grant toward the training she needed to redirect her career. After a few months of computer classes, she started her new career last month: assisting and counseling incoming students at Sullivan and Cogliano's Brockton job-training center - the place where she learned her new skills.

"I felt the car business was not rewarding for me," she said. "This is so much more rewarding."

There are dozens of grants and loans available through Workforce Development for job training, career development, and assistance with starting a business. And you don't have to fall on hard times to take advantage of the programs: the assistance, most of which is state- and federally-funded, is available to anyone seeking to change careers, said George Moriarty, the department's deputy director.

"Don't self-select yourself out of coming to the career center," he said.

Whatever the funding options experts say the economy means that transforming your career will probably prove challenging: there's lots of competition for good jobs, only certain sectors are hiring, and banks are hesitant to lend for unproven business start-ups. But with the right counseling, reinventing your career path is possible, they say.

"What happens during times of recession or depression is people start looking at what they can do to make a few bucks," said Ellie Rose, the One-Stop Career Center director in Norwood. "Maybe it was a hobby, but now they find there is an opportunity to make a career out of it."

The process of getting job-training assistance through Workforce Development begins with a career center counselor assessing your skills, goals, the current job market, and financial assistance options. With the classes you want to take in mind, you choose three schools from a list of state-approved institutions, narrow that to the best option, and then work with the staff to put together a package of financial assistance.

Assistance is provided for different types of career seekers:

If you lose your job to foreign competition, the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Act provides money for job-training programs up to 104 weeks at what the state and federal government deem a "reasonable cost." The program used to apply primarily to manufacturing, but the recently enacted federal stimulus package extended eligibility to service jobs.

Likewise, National Emergency Grants, under the federal Workforce Investment Act, provide training grants of up to $10,000 per person for workers who lose jobs in layoffs of 50 or more people. If the incidental expenses of going to class start to add up, Workforce Investment Act funds known as Title I Adult can help those with smaller budgets cover costs such as bus fare or car insurance.

And Education Rewards Loans - up to $10,000, currently at 7.8 percent interest, through the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority - can help pay for a nondegree program or up to half-time enrollment in an associate's degree program.

Meanwhile, Section 30 waivers allow you to collect unemployment benefits, even though your job search is on hold while you're attending school. The waivers are good for one year, and can extend unemployment benefits up to 18 weeks.

There's also help for people who, after layoffs perhaps, want to start their own businesses. The Massachusetts Small Business Development Center at Salem State College is one of six locations that offers workshops on building business plans and provides help with loans.

Once the center connects an entrepreneur with a bank, the US Small Business Administration - the center's parent agency - can further assist new business ventures by guaranteeing up to 90 percent of the loan amount. An example of guarantee fees for the borrower under the program: A seven-year $50,000 loan would be set at the prime interest rate plus 2.75 percent.

Maria Avramidis took advantage of the Norwood career center to start a business. Unemployed, Avramidis knew after talking with one potential employer about an office position in 2007 that a desk job was not for her.

"People are extremely slow, and not moving fast enough," she said of her experience in the administrative environment. "I dropped it after that."

The kind of work she really preferred: running a busy shop, interacting with customers, like she did in years prior at a deli.

She got together with Evie Lykourgos, a baker with 20 years experience who also wanted to strike out on her own. Their goal was to open a café, but neither had much in the way of managerial skills. At the career center, Avramidis found that she could get federal funding for computer and business classes.

Now, she and Lykourgos are co-owners of The Common Café and Patisserie, which opened last year in Norwood.

"The programs are there to help," Avramidis said. "They direct you in the right direction."

Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story in a special section Sunday called Career Transitions listed the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority's Education Rewards Loans program, which has been discontinued.