ROGERS -- Getting a job is partly about work skills and partly about people skills, and one local program tries to address both.

The stream of people who visit her office includes women with young children who are going back to work, the unemployed and retirees looking to brush up on computer skills and rejoin the work force, said Micaela Allison-Shropshire, career education coordinator for the Adult Education program at NorthWest Arkansas Community College.

Allison-Shropshire oversees the Workforce Alliance for Growth in the Economy program in Benton County. The class units are primarily online where job seekers work through them at their own pace, but she's also developed special training sessions taught in person at local businesses.

"It is whatever meets the need of the student or the business," Allison-Shropshire said.

The program, a part of the Arkansas Department of Career Education, and offers five certificates. Local educators can specialize employability skills, according to the Department of Career Education.

"You can have the best CEO in the world, but if you don't have a good work force it's not going to help," said Steve Cox, vice president of economic development at the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce.

His job, Cox said, consists of showing companies how Northwest Arkansas is their best option and why Rogers is a great place to work and live. When a large company moves to the area, there's concern it will be hard to hire qualified people in a short amount of time, Cox said.

Having people who are job-ready is part of the game, and training provided by the Workforce Alliance for Growth in the Economy program has helped draw some of the companies to Rogers, Cox said.

Heidi Wilbert, 16, is working toward a couple of certificates. Wilbert, who has been home-schooled, started the classes after finishing her GED. The computer training has been the most interesting thing she's learned, she said. She may move on to a trade school later or take the Postal Service exam, Wilbert said.

"It really helps you, and the teachers help you on computers, and it will increase your chances of getting a job," she said.

The program offers a chance to brush up on skills people learned in school 15 or 20 years ago, said Diana Strange, corporate trainer for Superior Industries, which operates manufacturing plants in Rogers and Fayetteville.

"In this country, we are in a period of transition now because of technology," Strange said.

The certificate program is a baseline for supervisor training at their Fayetteville plant, and she's working to bring it to the Rogers location, Strange said.

Supervisors don't just manage people, but manage paperwork and reports, she said. The Customer Service II certificate her supervisors work toward can be a review of reading, language and math skills, but also has computer training and works on their people skills.

Customer service is about more than doing a good job for the client, she said. The "customer" might be a client, a boss or a co-worker.

"It's 'how do you act?'," she said.

People want to set and reach goals, Strange said. Training represents an investment in the employee's success, and the state certificate program improves the value of company training, she said.

"The more training they get, the better we are," she said.

The Workforce Alliance for Growth in the Economy program is underused, Strange said.

When she talks to other professionals they don't worry about finding skilled workers to do the job, they worry about finding people who can get to work on time, dress appropriate to the job, get along with others, know more about computers and can craft a well-written report.

About three-quarters of the people who come to her are unemployed or trying to get a better job, Allison-Shropshire said. When they leave, they have a resume and their certificates. The program isn't college-level, but tests are at the level of a high school graduate.

Allison-Shropshire also talks with people who can't figure out why they aren't getting a job. A young woman in her 20s with purple hair and piercings told her no one ever said her sense of style could cost her an interview.

Sometimes Allison-Shropshire addresses things that could be touchy for a supervisor, like the young man who called his co-workers "baby."

"I'm like the auntie that'll tell you," Allison-Shropshire said.

She was once a returning student herself, and sees a big future for the students. Getting a certificate can move a student from knowing how to turn on a computer to understanding programs such as Microsoft Word and Excel. It can be a bridge to bigger things, she said.

"I like to give the students that first success," she said.