National Skills Summit

National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives:Financial Services

Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow: Job Training and Stay at Work Program

The Challenge:

To fill entry-level clerical positions at high-profile financial institutions with qualified workers formerly unfamiliar with the corporate environment.

The Solution:

Simulate a corporate environment within a comprehensive training and support program so that workers can be prepared to succeed in the corporate world.

The Partners:

Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow (OBT) is an employment training program that provide essential remedial, technical, and social training for economically-deprived Brooklyn residents.

Salomon Smith Barney, Met Life, Bank of New York, Paine Webber, and other major corporations have consistently hired the graduates of OBT.

The Story:

Jacqueline Yohrling, a welfare recipient and mother of five children, had never worked in a professional, corporate setting. She did not know what to expect, or what would be expected of her. But by the end of her first day at Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow, the expectations were clear and Jacqueline decided that she was up to the task. She graduated from OBT in January 2000 and began working as a clerk at the Manhattan law firm of Conners & Sullivan. She was recently promoted to legal assistant and earns an annual salary of $30,000 plus benefits. All five of her children were present at her graduation and now consider her a role model.

OBT trains disadvantaged youth and adults for entry-level work in a variety of corporate offices, primarily financial institutions, throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Throughout the training program, the corporate environment is replicated in every sense. Expectations are high. Participants are required to wear professional dress. Instruction is given in the context of "corporate seminars" and "training sessions", by "managers" and "office supervisors." Self motivation is rewarded. The program runs for 22 weeks, but can be accelerated for individuals who make an extra effort.

Participants master state-of-the-art office computer skills, business English, business math, and interview and resume writing skills. OBT also works to ease and overcome the burdens and barriers to employment: lack of education, a primary language other than English, single parenthood, and chronic unemployment or employment in menial, dead-end jobs. Like Jacqueline, most OBT graduates are the first generation in their family to work in an office.

According to Sister Mary Fransiscus, executive director of OBT, the infrastructure can be copied anywhere a mock office can be built. The key ingredient is attitude. Sister Mary Fransiscus runs a tight ship with high expectations for performance. She knows she is successful when the trainees adopt the same set of standards for themselves.

A Model of Innovation:

Knowing that many burdens and barriers exist long after training is complete, OBT assists its employed graduates through its innovative Stay At Work program. Staff members and mentors meet monthly with graduates to provide support and advice. OBT's facilities are available two nights a week to graduates who want to use the computers to brush up on a particular skill or need advice on a problem they encountered during the day. Monetary incentives are given to graduates who remain employed for three, six, and 12 months.

Contacts:

Sister Mary Franciscus, RSM
Executive Director
Opportunities For A Better Tomorrow
783 Fourth Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11232
718-369-0303 (p)
718-369-1518 (f)

Highlight Quote:

"I love my job at the law firm. They need me."
- Jacqueline Yohrling, OBT graduate and law firm clerk