No cyber skills? No need to apply till you do

“I knew what I wanted to do, but I had no direction. . . . I wasn’t on solid ground,’’ said Brookins, whose last job was in customer service for an airline.

The job market is tough enough already for 22-year-olds weaned on instant messaging and Facebook. But for some older people, blue-collar workers, and immigrants, a lack of computer fluency can make that first interview unattainable.

Libraries and job counseling programs are seeing a crush of people scrambling to learn the computer and English skills they need, not just to do the job itself, but to navigate the online applications that many prospective employers now require.

“We’ve got mature workers who are master carpenters, people who should be shoo-ins for Home Depot, who can’t get through the interviewing process because they can’t complete the application questions,’’ said Joan Cirillo, executive director of Operation ABLE, a Boston-based nonprofit organization that serves mature workers from across the state.

At Operation ABLE, job-hunters like Brookins receive up to 20 weeks of intensive computer and job training. Brookins gets tested five times a day on her typing and computer skills, and has a broad community of people supporting her. “Now I know how to use [the computer] proficiently,’’ she said.

But many job seekers must rely on libraries and programs that are limited by budgetary, staff, and space constraints.

“Right now, people are anxious anyway and they just want to fill out an application and get a job,’’ said Ellie Rose, who oversees the state-funded One-Stop Career Centers in Marlborough, Newton, and Norwood. She said that when the monthly registration for the centers’ computer courses opens, up to 80 people line up to try and get one of the limited spots.

“We can’t do any more than what we’re doing,’’ said Rose. “We don’t have the capacity to deal with all of the people who are coming in.’’

On a recent Saturday morning at Natick’s Morse Institute Library, Barbara Sanchez taught six people - the most who could be accommodated - in her weekly introductory computer class. Even though the class was small, some could not keep up.

“I need to do the class and try to make it understandable to everyone,’’ said Sanchez. “Sometimes it’s difficult, but it seems like whatever they get builds their confidence somewhat. . . . That’s what I really try for in the class.’’

She said she’s bothered by the troubles her students encounter with online applications. “The part I find frustrating is that they’re applying for jobs that don’t require using computers - it’s like a pre-prejudiced system.’’

Retired librarian Mary Wasmuth runs courses on online job searches and counsels people during drop-in hours at libraries in Framingham, Watertown, Brookline, and Cambridge. She said applicants are often stumped by behavioral questions asked by companies, citing Stop & Shop as a particularly challenging example.

“You have to interpret the questions and you have to figure out what’s appropriate to answer,’’ she said. “It’s torture. I think what typically happens is they give up.’’

A spokeswoman for Stop & Shop, Faith Weiner, said the company switched to online job applications in 2003. Applicants must apply via computers or in-store electronic application kiosks, which Weiner said comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Both methods have English and Spanish as language options.

When asked about the difficulties career coaches like Wasmuth have witnessed, Weiner said applicants can quit the application and return to the site within 30 days to finish, and employees are trained to help applicants at the kiosks.

“To help gauge future performance in a certain area, questions are asked about a person’s past performance in similar situations,’’ she said.

Officials from Home Depot, which many counselors said was one of the first firms to put its applications online, did not return calls for comment. But Rose said Home Depot staff have visited the One-Stop Career Centers to assist applicants.

At Operation ABLE, Cirillo has been seeing another population struggling with the online application revolution, in addition to immigrant and older workers. She calls it the “white male syndrome.’’

“These are folks who have worked with their hands their whole lives and when they get laid off, they’ll take their unemployment insurance and just stop working,’’ said Cirillo. “They don’t feel they have the job search skills, they don’t have the confidence, and they don’t have the computer skills.’’

Cirillo said it’s critical that these people are reached so they don’t give up on their ability to learn new skills.

But once reached, they may have to wait for the training.

Wasmuth recently had a class with 12 spots; 14 people showed up and another 17 people were waitlisted.

“Even if you looked for a job five years ago,’’ she said, “it’s a whole new world.’’

Megan McKee can be reached at megan.mckee@gmail.com.