Feb. 15, 2018 -- Six staffers from the Westchester-Putnam One-Stop Career Center completed Business U’s Business Engagement Practitioner Certification Course, a rigorous eight-week program designed to guide them in better understanding the needs of employers seeking to hire new employees, and train current ones. The One-Stop employees were Dr. LaTasha Hamlett-Carver, Employment and Training Specialist, Fawn Fisher, Employment Counselor, Judith King, Job Development Specialist, Leslie Megget, Employment Counselor, Melissa Thompson, Employment Counselor and Andy Wainer, Job Development Specialist.
For eight consecutive weeks across four states, participants attended weekly online sessions with Business U’s co-founders. The sessions focused on demand-driven strategies underpinned by a business engagement framework, focusing on relationship-building approaches and operational components to support and sustain their efforts.
“This program enabled our team to switch hats and understand the business perspective of hiring, and thereby elaborate more effectively on how what we do fits with employer’s strategic goals,” stated Dr. Hamlett-Carver. Hamlett-Carver added, “Each week we listened to best practices from individuals in different states which gave us an even broader perspective. We completed the program with an understanding of how to address businesses concerns in more creative ways, utilizing our career center’s existing programs.”
The business service team developed their own strategic plan for implementation based on goals for the Westchester area and feel better prepared to align their services with area partners so that they can immediately maximize job posting or training opportunities to meet the businesses objectives.
Business U is the nation’s only institutionally accredited organization with a focus on three vertical markets: workforce, education and economic development. As part of the course, practitioners expand their knowledge of business concepts, strategies vs. tactics and how/when to apply them, asset and resource alignment, talent management needs and the art of the “ask.” Additional aspects included applying a consultative approach when engaging with business and industry, and applying standardized needs assessments to validate hiring/training needs.
“Until I completed the Business U course, I hadn’t thought of how my customer fit into the employer’s bigger picture,” Employment Counselor Leslie Megget said. “Now when I sit with the customer, I think about the skills they need to help a business succeed and not the other way around. I put equal emphasis on the business as my customer, because that’s the only way everyone wins.”
Photo: L–R: Leslie Megget, Employment Counselor, Judith King, Job Development Specialist, Fawn Fisher, Employment Counselor, Andy Wainer, Job Development Specialist, Dr. LaTasha Hamlett-Carver, Employment and Training Specialist. Missing: Melissa Thompson, Employment Counselor.
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