The Challenge
The Maine Department of Labor (DOL) issued an RFP to develop a virtual job center aimed at enhancing services for rural jobseekers and employers, as well as other sectors of the labor market for whom accessing a physical job center might prove challenging. With Maine’s traditional job centers limited in geographic scope, the DOL sought to leverage technology to broaden its outreach, ensuring job seekers in remote areas had access to vital resources. The Work Source Maine Virtual CareerCenter would enable users to search for jobs, engage with career fairs, and access community services—all online. The goal was to create a scalable and easy-to-navigate platform to serve a broad demographic, from those seeking employment to those in need of career retraining.
Our Approach
To meet the DOL’s needs as the winning vendor, we recommended implementing our CiviServ product, a customizable Drupal-based solution that had been refined with other agencies over 10 years. Development of the Virtual CareerCenter involved extensive project management, from business objective analysis and user research to stakeholder engagement and testing. Key features included customizable user assessments, job search tools, career research, and resume management. One critical feature was the “triage” function, allowing users to answer a series of questions to guide them to the most relevant resources, gradually building their profile in a non-threatening way. This system integrated location-based search for job and service matching, using geocoding through Google Maps and the Leaflet module for Drupal.
The Result
The Virtual CareerCenter launched on time and on budget, quickly becoming a central hub for Maine’s workforce services, with thousands of users accessing the site. The site emphasizes self-service options, allowing users to navigate the system independently. A complimentary Work Source Maine project is currently underway, focusing on creating a statewide training catalog to further support career advancement. This addition will allow users to personalize their career paths, with a special emphasis on healthcare, a critical sector in Maine. The second phase is slated for completion in 2025.
