DECATUR - Robyn McCoy, director of Workforce Investment Solutions, told the Decatur Jobs Council on Tuesday that she expects the second round of a new welding training program to go even better.

Classes are set to begin Jan. 21 with 12 students who will be chosen from 31 undergoing the final phase of a multistep assessment process that McCoy believes is more quickly identifying which candidates truly want to become welders. She said 75 signed up to go through the assessment at the outset.

"We put the job site tour prior to the Test for Adult Basic Education this time," she said. "That way they could see what working at a manufacturing company entails."

McCoy was speaking at the bimonthly meeting of the jobs council, a coalition of social service agencies working to remove barriers to employment for disadvantaged people, at Homeward Bound.

She also said two weeks of blueprint reading have been added, extending the welding program to 12 weeks, and that six of seven people who found jobs after completing 10 weeks of training Oct. 10 are still employed.

The seventh was fired because of poor attendance, so "there's going to be an even greater emphasis on attendance this time," she said.

Ten people in all, nine men and one woman, graduated from the first round of training.

The welding program is funded by a $50,000 Job Training and Economic Development Grant awarded last spring to the Community Foundation of Decatur/Macon County by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Development.

Other partners involved in providing the training include the Macon-DeWitt Workforce Investment Board and the Decatur School District's Adult Education Department, plus three employers - Union Iron Works, TCR Systems and Barton Mfg.

In other business, members of the jobs council talked about their role helping the hard-core unemployed find jobs in an economy that's changed since they began meeting in 2005.

"Our goals in terms of job placement have to be pretty modest," consultant Fred Spannaus said. "People with multiple barriers are competing against people who have solid job histories and solid job skills."

He wondered if the council could do anything to help people start their own businesses, which more people tend to think about doing in hard times.

McCoy said she's seen an increased interest in getting more education as the job market has tightened.

"Some of the good-paying jobs that we were focusing on might not be a reality right now," she said, "but getting entry-level jobs and helping them develop a work ethic will help in the future."

tchurchill@herald-review.com|421-7978