KRA Customer’s Success Leads to Career Opportunity for Another

Three months ago, Tiana McLeish enrolled in YouthWorks!—a career-development program for Out-of-School Youth and young adults (18-24)—operated by KRA for the Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corporation.

Adhering to the Workforce Excellence Series, developed by AAWDC, YouthWorks! combines career assessment and guidance with workplace-skills training to equip young jobseekers with resources that maximize their potential for long-term workforce success.

James LeBlanc, KRA Program Manager, reported, “During a Workplace Excellence Workshop, our Career Exploration Team agreed that Tiana’s skills-and-interest assessments indicated she would be highly successful in a customer-service career environment.”

Following productive career-planning and-counseling sessions, the Team also agreed that Tiana was workforce-ready, and arranged for an interview with the owner of B&A Brothers Driving Academy, Allan Griffin, who was so impressed with Tiana that he immediately requested a Work Experience Contract [WEX] for her as an Office Assistant.

Under this arrangement, Tiana could work up to 200 wage-subsidized hours, providing Mr. Griffin the opportunity to decide whether to hire her permanently. However, from day 1, the WEX was producing positive results, with Mr. Griffin reporting that Tiana’s phone etiquette was perfect, that she had learned the office-system routine quickly, and that she transitioned to different responsibilities flawlessly.

At the end of her WEX, Mr. Griffin hired Tiana permanently. However, shortly thereafter, when the Office Manager took an extended personal leave-of-absence, he offered her the position of Acting Office Manager, opening up a WEX opportunity for another participant, Melanie Montiel.

What a successful YouthWorks! tag team!!