ORANGE, NJ – “Job Training in Action” was the theme of this year’s Open House at The First Occupational Center of New Jersey (OCNJ), the state’s oldest and largest vocational training and job placement agency. The event helped to recognize National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

OCNJ provides services to developmentally disabled, elderly and economically disadvantaged New Jersey residents. The Open House showcased the vocational job training programs that focus on securing not only personal independence for clients but employment as well.

Through a series of informational tours of the Agency, those in attendance saw how OCNJ prepares job-seekers for employment. Demonstrations included how to construct access ramps for the disabled and other building trades skills, producing color jobs on a printing press, the use of aids for the visually impaired, and the many job readiness techniques OCNJ employs to put people to work. The OCNJ Driving School showcased a state-of-the-art truck driving simulator, which helps students prepare to obtain their commercial driver’s license, and onlookers watched a class of students training to receive their Black Seal boiler license. Students from affiliated Lakeside School’s Culinary Arts program served gourmet refreshments.

“We are committed to delivering quality services and in doing so, providing employment opportunities for so many New Jersey residents,” said Rocco J. Meola, President and CEO of the First Occupational Center. “The key to our success is the valuable training we provide at OCNJ.”

In the past 52 years, OCNJ has grown from an agency that relied on government funding for 70 percent of its operating revenues to one that now generates that amount from its business enterprises and fundraising efforts. OCNJ runs one of the largest curbside recycling services in the state, operating in 25 municipalities.

More than 1,200 residents benefit annually from the services of OCNJ. The Agency was named by Governor Christine Todd Whitman as one of the 12 original Work First New Jersey Corporate Partners. Today it continues to be a model for enabling people to move from a dependent to independent lifestyle.