“Business Services Consultant Charles Botts joins Elizabeth Sheehan to talk about the CTWorks Jobs Program” reads the text on the ctnow.com website. For the second year in a row, KRA/CTWorks was featured on the local Fox-affiliate TV station, Fox 61, Hartford, CT. On March 21, 2012, Charles Botts III, KRA Business Services Consultant, appeared on the news show FOXCT Morning Extra, accompanied by Elizabeth Sheehan, a former KRA/CTWorks jobseeker-customer placed with a local construction company on an OJT contract. From January 18 through June 5, under the authority of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), the U.S. Department of Labor pays half of Sheehan’s salary and the business-customer pays the other half. This arrangement worked so well for the small business start-up, that KRA/CTWorks was able to place two customers for the ‘price’ of one. Sheehan and Jo-Ann Montgomery, the other trainee, were both placed as Office Managers, with separate responsibilities for managing the operation. When the OJTs end, it is fully expected that they will be hired on a fulltime, permanent basis.
Sheehan qualified for enrollment in the WIA Dislocated Workers Program as the result of a layoff from a healthcare company…after 19 years of dedicated service. After being out of work for 18 months, KRA/CTWorks staff, which included Botts, were able to place her with a rapidly-expanding “green energy” construction company based in East Granby, CT. Transitioning from the healthcare industry as a claims and billing specialist, Sheehan is being trained to act as a liaison between work crews and home owners; set appointments; and track marketing, sales, and production performance. Montgomery is training to handle billing and customer-service support, and to conduct research on “best practices” for improving the efficiency of the office by streamlining business processes and procedures.
Sheehan attributes her success and new opportunity to the KRA/CTWorks team, stating, “They kept me motivated. When I got laid-off, I was devastated for quite awhile, but the staff kept picking me up.” Botts commented, “Betty’s story, and Jo-Ann’s as well, is a great example of the power of public-private partnership…KRA/CTWorks and government and private-industry collaborators all working ‘under the same umbrella’ to help jobseeker-customers get back to work, which is critical to the economic development and growth here in the North Central Region.”
For Botts and Sheehan interview, click on: http://www.ctnow.com/videogallery/68947636/News/CTWorks-Jobs-Program-321/
After the broadcast, Botts participated in a live web-chat with viewers on effective resume-writing.
Dr. Boone’s 20+ years’ experience in the industry is extensive and her expertise in private-, public-, and non-profit sector workforce-services organizations is unparalleled, particularly in the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan area.
