A local placement service offers its employees a free way to improve their skills while never even leaving the comfort of their homes.

Manpower Inc. has expanded its curriculum and services offered on-line for its employees on the Global Learning Center to include finance, marketing, business, law, human resource management and accounting, along with more than 1,000 software and information technology training modules.

This new technology helps Manpower employees to learn new skills, qualify for higher-level job opportunities and advance their careers, while offering its business customers a chance to gain more highly skilled workers.

Manpower employees are provided with a password to go on-line at their convenience and utilize the programs.

The program takes the employee through certain skills step-by-step, such as Microsoft Word or accounting tasks, and gives the person a chance to master one level before going on to the next.

For instance, if an employee has industrial experience, but wants to move to an office environment, the program can train that employee on the Internet and prepare him or her to move to a job he or she considers more desirable.

Beth Malone, an employee of Manpower who sought to use the program about a year ago, said she had been in college and wanted a way to fine tune her computer skills.

"It's so much easier to understand and comprehend than learning it on your own," she said.

Malone said she can now do anything from secretarial work, data entry and spread sheets. She admitted that even though the learning process was lengthy, running about four to five hours in one sitting, it was still worth all the time and effort.

Melissa Blankenship, a representative for Manpower in Greenville, said the on-line training course benefits not only the employees, but the employers, too.

"The employees now have a way to expand their knowledge on a variety of skills that are free," Blankenship said. "We feel confident that when employees utilize the program, they will be able to use those skills in the workplace, while employers can have more skilled employment."

The GLC program also allows Manpower employees to comment with others by using a virtual Community Center, enabling them to use chat rooms to network with each other. The Community Center also offers seminars on topics that could help employees on their job searches.

Currently, about 200,000 Manpower employees have utilized the free training offered on GLC, which has been operational for more than a year. If anyone is interested in the services Manpower offers, call 382-6576 for more information.