The Executive - Spring 2015

65-year-olds on using a mouse, creating Word documents and mastering Excel programs, or teaching fourth through six graders about entrepreneurship. During a typical 9 a.m. Friday class at Tuscaloosa Housing Authority’s McKenzie Court Community Center, unemployed and underemployed third-shift fast-food workers focus on building career-worthy skills.

“Volunteers from accounting honor
group Beta Alpha Psi and our business
honors program work as tutors, with
one Culverhouse student paired with
two community members. They work
on one computer for 75 minutes,”
McKinney says. “Many attendees are
using a computer for the first time.”
Although open to all, attendees tend
to be from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The program began after McKinney
studied local employment.

“We researched all the area job
postings, McKinney says. “Since the
most common required skills were
Microsoft Word and Excel, you’re
unqualified for many jobs without those
skills. We also found high schools in
disadvantaged areas no longer offer
computer classes because computer
skills are not on standardized tests.”
Almost immediately, hopeful and
fearful candidates called, many with the
same concern:
“You know, I can’t use a computer.”
“That’s OK, because I can’t cook or
change a tire,” McKinney responded.

As student volunteers tutor an immigrant family in programs needed for their new store or help a minimum-wage worker develop next-level skills, they catch a glimpse what it is like to work hard for low pay.

Class graduates will earn certificates worthy of the résumés they will learn to write in another Culverhouse outreach class. Some will progress in current fields. Others will be better-equipped to pursue long-imagined careers.

“I have never seen people so hungry to learn,” McKinney says of attendees. “We hope to offer classes in QuickBooks because there are bookkeeping jobs available at $25 an hour. We’re considering classes in office communication and business writing skills. The list is endless.”