Easing the Transition

lyce El is one of 8,700 workers at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Naval Base who will lose their jobs when the base closes in 1995.

But the 24-year-old personnel clerk isn't waiting for a pink slip to get her job hunt started. With the help of a unique transition center established on the base, El is using this opportunity to evaluate her skills and explore new career paths.

The Philadelphia Career Transition Center opened March 8 to help civilian workers obtain new government or private industry jobs. Its state-of-the-art computers, numerous software programs and corps of shipyard managers who double as counselors place it among the more comprehensive centers of its kind. The service available are designed to help civilian workers evaluate their skills, prepare snappy resumes and complete government job applications.

In some cases, job retraining programs are available for workers who decide to change occupations. Job fairs and job clubs also are being planned.

"I found the center extremely helpful for getting organized and seeing what qualities I have to sell to help me find a new job," El says. "The counselors helped me make my resume more presentable than the one I already had. And they gave me credit for abilities I didn't know I had."

Grassroots Efforts

Philadelphia is just one of the many military bases where helping civilian employees find new jobs has become nearly a national pastime. The Defense Department several years ago began providing similar job transition assistance to civilian and military personnel through family support and alumni offices located on bases. But the recent rounds of base closures and the current military drawdown created a need to do more.

As a result, base officials at various locations, using funds of their own, independently initiated grass-roots transition assistance programs, each one tailored to meet the specific needs of the base's employees.

"There are all kinds of special programs out there," says Ellen Tunstall, program manager of benefits and entitlements under the assistant secretary of defense for civilian personnel policy.

"The bases have been real innovative in what they've done. They've been working with state departments of labor and employment commissions. There has been general guidance out of the department and some facilities in terms of dollars and programs, but a lot of what's happened has been real innovative, grass-roots kind of stuff. And that's to the credit of the managers and employees out there."

Civilian personnel officials in March 1992 opened a center similar to the Philadelphia operation, but smaller, at the Sacramento Army Depot after that base was put on the 1991 base closure list. The center was designed to serve 6,500 civilian and military personnel and their families, says the center's assistant chief, Mary Romero. So far, the center has placed nearly 70 depot employees. The depot, scheduled to close in 1997, specializes in radar and telecommunications repair.

In July 1991, officials at Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento which was targeted in the 1988 base closure process, began a program to help 1,600 civilian employees find new jobs or get training for new careers. The first of its kind in the Air Force, the program has since counseled 750 people and placed 133 in jobs, says coordinator Joann Morse. The navigation training base will close in September.

More Cuts Ahead

More efforts of this type are taking shape as the size of the military continues to dwindle.

The Defense Department in March announced plans to reduce its civilian workforce by 40,000 by Oct. 1, bringing the force down to 966,000 by the end of fiscal 1993. About 25,000 are expected to leave through attrition; the rest will be forced out or -- depending on their occupations and seniority -- offered voluntary pay incentives of up to $ 25,000 each to leave.

At many bases, personnel cuts could begin much sooner. Many bases have asked for permission to begin letting employees go as early as this spring. For instance, Philadelphia has asked to immediately trim between 800 and 1,200 workers because there is not enough work to match its large workforce.

A day before the 1993 defense base closure and realignment recommendations were announced in March, President Clinton announced a $ 20 billion package of measures designed to help industries, workers and communities hurt by defense-budget cuts and base closings.

Meanwhile, officials at many bases have obtained federal money through the Labor Department for job training and rallied local volunteers to serve as counselors in an effort to provide a smooth transition of defense workers to jobs in the private sector or at other government agencies.

Setting an Example

In Philadelphia, civilian personnel officials from Naval Sea Systems Command set out to create a transition center that other military bases targeted for closure or realignment could use as a model. The large number of displaced workers and the specialized nature of their work presented quite a challenge, says Nancy Doody, the human resources specialist who designed the center.

"Most cancer centers are like employment agencies. But the one I designed in Philadelphia takes a different slant," Doody says. "I've coupled career planning and development, because many of these people have to make new decisions about their future. They have to look at their options, see what they're qualified for, and, under the Job Training and Placement Act, retrain themselves for different careers, because many of their jobs are going away."

Doody encourages clients to think of themselves as corporations that need "to market your skills and sell your product, with you as your product."

The center is equipped with computers and laser printers for creating professional resumes, software programs for conducting career and skill assessments, reference materials for matching skills with potential employers, directories for locating industry contacts and computerized government job application programs. In addition, more than a dozen volunteer career counselors -- an equal mix of shipyard managers and union stewards -- help displaced clients get started.

The goal is to help civilian workers obtain new employment within 120 days (the amount of notice workers must receive when being involuntarily separated).

"So far, it's been a real educational process for us to get people to understand that we are not a job placement agency," says on-site manager Cindy Anderson. "Our job is to provide employees the tools they need to market themselves to find employment. A lot of people don't find that out until they get here."

Since many of these workers have not been in the job market for years, the center is providing stress-management counseling, videotapes on interviewing tips and conducting mock interviews for clients.

"So many things in government can become regimented," she says. "We are not business as usual. We are totally customer oriented -- to really assess what their needs are and get them on their way. It's all individual. There's no standard format here."

This month, Doody plans to open a smaller version of the Philadelphia center at the Naval Sea Systems Command in Arlington, Va., for use by the 12,000 civilians employed at the Navy's numerous systems commands.

"If it works in Philadelphia, it will work anywhere," Doody says.

COMPUTERIZED JOB-HUNTING

In addition to counseling, computers, skill assessment aids, job clubs and workshops, many civilian career transition centers offer these popular computer software programs for use by clients.

Career Point -- Evaluates clients' interests and values to help them make career decisions.

FOCIS -- Provides information about federal careers and occupations.

Quick and Easy SF-171 and Fed/Form 171 -- Provides easy preparation of the government's standard application form.

WordPerfect and Resume Maker -- Both help write and print professional resumes and cover letters. ACCESS -- An on-line listing of federal job openings nationwide.

Career Search -- A database to match career objectives with specific companies.

ALEX -- A national job bank database developed and operated by state labor departments that lists private industry, state and federal job vacancies.

Office of Personnel Management Touch-Screen Job Query System -- Provides information about various federal occupations.

Harris Directory -- Local listings of manufacturers by occupational grouping.

For more information on these software programs, contact the Defense Department's Office of Civilian Personnel Management at (703) 693-5235. Military personnel can find out more about similar software programs by calling the Military Transition Support and Services Office at (703) 697-0481 or by contacting the family services office on their base.)