National Skills Summit

National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: High Tech and Sciences

Bell Atlantic Corporation and Northeast Career Planning: Train for 2000

The Challenge:

To provide people with disabilities the technology training they need to acquire high-skilled, high-pay jobs in the telecommunications industry.

The Solution:

Design new programs and curricula that allow people with disabilities to train alongside traditional workers in existing facilities.

The Partners:

Bell Atlantic Corporation is a leading-edge telecommunications company providing telephone, cellular, and Internet services to customers from Maine to Virginia.

Northeast Career Planning (NCP) is a not-for-profit New York agency that helps more than 1,500 people with disabilities to join the workforce each year.

The Story:

In February 1999, Northeast Career Planning asked Bell Atlantic to open its multi-million-dollar training center to people with disabilities. Bell Atlantic accepted the challenge, launching the Train for 2000 initiative.

A team made up of Bell Atlantic employees, NCP employees, community advocates, and independent contractors designed a unique program that allowed persons who are visually impaired to use Bell Atlantic's Multi-Media Learning Center in Albany side-by-side with Bell Atlantic employees. The pilot program trained 100 visually impaired people in various computer software applications including Windows 95, Microsoft Office product line, Business Communications, introduction to the Internet, and Typing Tutor. Trainees use these skills in a variety of different ways. One trainee needed the computer training to pass the civil service exam, while another needed the training for a promotion within the company for which she already worked. Ninety percent of the trainees went on to increased wages or upgrades in their current positions.

The installation of a software program designed to allow visually impaired consumers to participate in the training is currently being tested. This software will allow visually impaired consumers and employees to participate in the training as well.

Bell Atlantic absorbed the $75 per-student per-day expense for this Train for 2000 program. The pilot in Albany proved so successful that "Train for 2000" has been extended to the Bell Atlantic location in Long Island.

More than 866,340 people with disabilities reside in New York State alone. Sixty percent of these people are not in the workforce. This unique partnership between NCP and Bell Atlantic is aimed exactly where the need exists, and sets an example for other corporations to make their training facilities accessible to people with disabilities.

A Model of Innovation:

Bell Atlantic took a nationally-recognized, groundbreaking step to open up its training facility for people with disabilities. Furthermore, Bell Atlantic's innovative approach to training well-suits people with disabilities; the training is self-paced, allowing various disabilities to be accommodated. This training opportunity will help to develop more workers for the IT industry.

Contacts:

Marion Mittler,
Director, Community Affairs, Northeast
Bell Atlantic
158 State Street, Room 1000C
Albany, NY 12207
518-396-1052 (p)
518-471-6640 (f)

The 21st Century Workforce Commission

The 21st Century Workforce Commission was convened to find ways of expanding the information technology workforce, bringing people and technology together for the 21st Century. In its final report, "A Nation of Opportunity," the commission reported what many National Skills Summit participants had learned from their own experiences: partnerships of business, education, and government create the best solutions for the skills shortage.

The commission identified several other keys to successful development of the IT workforce, among them:

Help every American - child and adult - to acquire 21st century literacy, including strong academic, thinking, reasoning, and teamwork skills as well as proficiency in using technology.

Enroll more people in high-quality information technology programs to provide them up-to-date skills.

Make access to the Internet and high-speed connections universal.

Do a better job of letting young people know what it takes to have a career in information technology, including what skills are required, what the work is like, and how to get into the various technology occupations.