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Innovative Initiatives: Financial Services
To find and retain reliable workers for skilled
entry-level clerical and administrative jobs with large New York City financial
services employers.
Provide unskilled prospective corporate employees with an
intensive training program designed by corporate employers to match their
needs, and to provide trainees with real-world experience through full-time,
paid internships.
Wildcat Service Corporation is a non-profit human
services, training, and employment organization in New York City serving more
than 6,000 people annually.
Drake Beam Morin, a for-profit employment agency,
collaborates with Wildcat to teach trainees job-search preparation skills.
Salomon Smith Barney, a financial consulting firm,
works with Wildcat to develop a curriculum that prepares former welfare
recipients for work at the firm.
New York City Human Resources Administration refers
welfare recipients to Wildcat.
Rhonda Costa is an office manager at the Salomon Smith
Barney corporate headquarters in New York City. A single mother of two who once
received federal assistance, she participated in Wildcat's Private Industry
Partnership program that places trainees in internships with financial
institutions. Costa interned for four months at $6.50 per hour and was then
hired as an administrative assistant at Salomon Smith Barney before taking her
current position.
The Private Industry Partnership is designed to meet the
current needs of employers in the financial services, telecommunications, and
banking industries. The 32-week program offers demand-driven, industry-specific
employment preparation for jobs with career opportunities that pay an average
of $25,000 plus comprehensive health and benefits.
During the initial 16-week phase, participants spend half
of their time in paid work and the other half attending classes at Wildcat,
learning life and educational skills designed in conjunction with Salomon Smith
Barney. In addition, Drake Beam Morin, Inc. provides training and assistance in
preparing resumes, interviewing, self-directed job search skills, and other
employment skills.
During the second 16 weeks, participants are eligible to
interview for full-time, paid internships at Salomon Smith Barney. Hiring
decisions are based on the individual's performance and the needs of the firm.
Today, more than a dozen financial service companies use the Private Industry
Partnership program as a referral source for new employees.
Since the inception of the Private Industry Partnership,
more than 400 welfare recipients recruited from the New York City Human
Resources Administration have been placed in full-time employment at an average
salary of $25,000 at placement. The job retention rate for these individuals is
92 percent after four years.
The program's design makes it easy to replicate. In 1997,
Citigroup asked Wildcat to design a similar program in Baltimore, with one of
its subsidiaries, Citifinancial. That replication was successfully completed in
1999, and now the Maryland Center for Arts and Technology, MCAT, provides
Citifinancial with former welfare recipients who are being hired as clerical
and administrative employees at an average salary of $22,000.
Financial and corporate employers can confidently tap into
pools of untapped potential, such as welfare recipients, when they know that
their new employees will show up prepared and qualified for work. By involving
employers in the design of the training program and in the administration of
the internships, Wildcat guarantees the highest caliber of training and career
potential.
Jeffrey Jablow, Executive Vice President
Wildcat
Service Corporation
17 Battery Place
New York City, New York 10004
212-209-6022 (p)
212-635-3875 (f)
Karen Smith, Vice President,
Program
Administration
Wildcat Service Corporation
2 Washington Street
New
York City, New York 10004
212-209-6070 (p)
212-635-3872 (f)
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