General

1. Are Burning Glass’s Focus Assist and Focus Career Explorer tools designed to replace the IDES Job Link or IWDS case management systems?
   
   

   ​No. The Burning Glass and other employment tools identified in partnership with CompTIA are to be used in addition to the resources and tools available through IJL and IWDS. This is a pilot program created to assess whether these tools will enhance employment opportunities for job seekers and create more customer/employer engagement opportunities for workforce professionals.

2. How are jobs pulled into the Burning Glass system? Are they current?
   
   

   ​Job seekers and workforce professionals will be able to conduct normal keyword searches, but they will also have the opportunity to use the auto matching feature that uses profile information to suggest employment opportunities. The jobs listed are de-duplicated and based on zip codes ranging from the Rockford and Chicago metropolitan areas, covering most northern Illinois counties, as well as the bordering Wisconsin and Indiana areas.

3. Who do I contact for troubleshooting issues?
   
   

   ​Contact Jeff Lareau (630-678-8480, jlareau@comptia.org) or Nicole Maseberg (630-678-8477, nmaseberg@comptia.org) at CompTIA to assist with issues.

4. Who is authorized to use the Burning Glass tools?
   
   

   ​Participating workforce development centers will be given access to the Focus Assist tool using a login and password. Those users will be authorized to suggest the use of the Focus Career Explorer tool to IT job seekers to assist in gaining employment. All participating workforce centers will also receive the “Opportunities in Chicago’s IT Landscape” interactive tool.

5. Who is Burning Glass and what tools will be available with this grant?
   
   

   ​CompTIA is the Information Technology industry partner that is responsible for identifying and tailoring employment tools for Illinois’ Job-Driven National Emergency (JD NEG) grant. These tools include piloting the Burning Glass Focus Suite of products. Focus Career Explorer allows job seekers to explore career paths, create targeted resumes, and review job leads based on a matching system. Focus Assist is an interactive tool that allows workforce development professionals to track their customers’ job search progress, review and develop resumes, and suggest current job openings. Burning Glass is also providing specific labor insight and market research analysis through a slide deck called “Opportunities in Chicago’s IT Landscape” which gives detailed statistics on employment opportunities, direct employers in local areas that are hiring, and knowledge of local in-demand positions.

Regarding Job Seekers

1. Does every IT job seeker have to use Focus Career Explorer?
   
   

   ​No. The workforce professional will choose who they want to have in the system. The person(s) they choose should agree to actively participate.  (See question 4 under this subject for the benefits of Focus Career Explorer.)

2. How many job seekers are we allowed to enroll into the system?
   
   

   ​To start, each participating location will be able to enroll up to 40 IT job seekers into the Focus Career Explorer tool. Once the participating location approaches 40 enrolled job seekers, they should contact Jeff Lareau or Nicole Maseberg at CompTIA to gain access to additional job seeker entries.

3. What happens if the job seeker doesn’t want to continue with Focus Career Explorer after creating a profile in the application?
   
   

   ​Contact Jeff Lareau (630-678-8480) or Nicole Maseberg (630-678-8477) at CompTIA to assist with inactivating that user.

4. Why should our job seekers use Focus Career Explorer?
   
   

   ​Focus Career Explorer allows IT job seekers to easily build customized IT resumes that highlight transferrable skills. Acronyms, keywords, and typical job duties can be automatically added to the resume based on previous experience. It also allows them to stay in direct contact with their case manager by sending direct messages, receiving notifications and job lead suggestions, and reporting their activities within the tool. These features enable more customized assistance based on the customer’s specific needs.

Regarding Workforce Development

1. Can we share Burning Glass’s “Opportunities in Chicago’s IT Landscape” slide deck with other interested parties?
   
   

   ​Yes. The slide deck can be shared with interested parties.  However, Burning Glass’s Focus Suite tools need to stay regulated due to limited user accessibility and cannot be shared at this time.

2. Does every case manager at my workforce center have to use these tools?
   
   

   No. There is one person at each participating location who has received login credentials to access the Burning Glass Focus Assist tool.  The workforce professional will choose which IT job seekers they want to have in the system. The person(s) they choose should agree to actively participate.  (See question 4 under Regarding Job Seekers for the benefits of Focus Career Explorer.) If more users need to gain access to these tools, they should contact Jeff Lareau or Nicole Maseberg at CompTIA

3. What happens if the workforce representative at our center with access rights to Burning Glass no longer works there?
   
   

   ​Contact Jeff Lareau (630-678-8480) or Nicole Maseberg (630-678-8477) to assist with gaining a new user name and password for your location.

4. What is Focus Talent?
   
   

   ​Focus Talent is an additional tool offered by Burning Glass which emphasizes employer engagement. This aspect of Burning Glass will not be used during the IT JD NEG project.

5. Where can I find specific employer outreach opportunities for our work-based learning needs?
   
   

   ​Employer information for business services teams can be found in the “Opportunities in Chicago’s IT Landscape” slide deck. The Burning Glass analytics team has identified top employers who have shown notable IT hiring trends in 2014 for specific geographic areas. Employers who posted positions for internships in 2014 are also included.  These highlighted employers are good targets for this grant’s required work-based learning component.

6. Why should our workforce team use these tools?
   
   

   ​This is a pilot program to determine if these tools can complement the efforts of workforce professionals in assisting job seekers. These tools were designed to increase efficiency and offer real-time information to increase performance outcomes and job seeker success.