National Skills Summit

National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: Financial Services

Wildcat Service Corporation: Private Industry Partnership

The Challenge:

To find and retain reliable workers for skilled entry-level clerical and administrative jobs with large New York City financial services employers.

The Solution:

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.

The Partners:

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.

The Story:

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.

A Model of Innovation:

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.

Contacts:

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)