Developing Interests

Work Skills Training Center Opens In Goshen

A new facility in Goshen is beginning its work in training special needs students with a variety of workplace skills in hopes of allowing them to find employment as adults.

The Work Skills Training Center for Youth, housed in the building that had for many years held restaurants from Mill Creek Café to BGs-2, began its inaugural program this week, with special needs students from both Rockbridge and Bath counties being brought in to the center to develop skills with cooking, gardening, food service and retail businesses by helping find things that each student is interest in.

“If you can get into their interests and find out what they like, these are the best workers you could ever have because they’ll stay forever and they truly love everything they do,” said Nicole Wyant, director of the training center. “They are passionate people and I just love working with them.”

Wyant, who earned a Master of Science degree in special education in 2021, brings 17 years of teaching experience in Augusta, Bath and Alleghany county public schools, many of it working with special needs students, to the center. She began teaching fourth grade and then kindergarten in Augusta County schools, and then began with special needs students in Bath County Public Schools.

“I immediately knew that was what I was meant to do,” she said. “I really love that population because their hearts are just amazing. They soak up everything you teach them. … They have pure hearts and love everybody and every day is a different day and every child you meet is completely different.”

Special education students in Bath County are kept in a self-contained classroom, so Wyant spent every day working closely with the same students and developing lessons for them, skills that she plans to utilize fully in with the training center. She also has five years of experience in working with adults with special needs to develop workplace readiness skills at the Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation Center in Fishersville, where she helped develop a more hands-on program for adults with special needs.

The program had different stations, each with a different focus, such as teaching how to identify different tools and learning what they are used for, or developing fine motor skills through weaving, or learning muscle memory techniques through automotive training. There was also a component of teaching time management skills by having each participant come up with a list of tasks they wanted to accomplish and reflecting on what they did and didn’t get done each day. The program at the Goshen training center will follow a similar model, but geared toward younger individuals.

The training center’s program is designed for students between the ages of 14 and 22 with disabilities “who would benefit from high-support, hands-on learning,” according to its website.

The program will primarily focus on developing skills in three areas: culinary skills, agriculture skills and retail skills.

Culinary skills will include how to prepare and serve meals in restaurant settings, reading and following recipes, and proper use of various kitchen appliances and utensils. Stations have been set up in the on-site kitchen to help focus on some aspect of culinary training.

Additionally, the center will host a community luncheon once a week on Fridays, where members of the community are invited to attend. The meal will be prepared and served by the students, and people who come are encouraged to interact with the students by asking about the menu, placing orders, and following prompts that will be made available to them to help the students work on interaction skills.

The training center has an on-site garden that will be utilized for developing agriculture skills, such as growing and harvesting plants. A greenhouse has been ordered and will hopefully be delivered and installed in November, which will provide additional skills for students to learn, such as testing the pH levels of soil and how to water plants.

Earlier this year, the Goshen Town Council unanimously voted to donate $5,000 to help pay for the cost of transporting the greenhouse to the center and it was announced last week that the training center had received a $10,000 grant from the Farm Credit of the Virginias’ Charitable Contributions Fund to help build the greenhouse.

For the retail training, off-site opportunities will be available at the convenience store just up the street from the training center – which is owned by Wyant’s husband – for teaching skills such as stocking shelves and how to read expiration dates. Certifications are available for each of the skill areas, including the ServSafe Food Handler certification, the National Retail Federation certification and a Greenhouse Management certification, all of which can help them find employment after graduation.

While those are the main focus of the center, Wyant said that she and the other instructors will work with each student to find which skills they’re most interested in and adjust the skill training accordingly or develop training programs for adjacent skills – such as baking alongside culinary skills – for students with different interests. She also said that she’s reached out to several local businesses and services about potentially letting students work there to learn additional skills that fit their interests.

“I want them to find their niche, their interest, and have a career,” she said. “I want them to be successful.”

While the center’s current students are coming from Rockbridge and Bath counties, Wyant says that the center is also available for students from Alleghany, Augusta, and Highland counties.

The training center has a maximum capacity of 15 students at any given time and Wyant is operating on a strict one-to-four ratio, meaning there will never be more than four students for any single member of the training center’s staff. There are several reasons for that, including basic safety and supervision considerations, but it also ensures that the instructors are able to give the students the focus needed to teach them the skills and to be able to “tailor their support precisely to each student … without diluting the quality of instruction or compromising workplace safety.”

To learn more about the Work Skills Training Center for Youth, the services it offers, and how to support it, visit its website at https:// workskillstrainingcenterforyouth. org/.