LMI Internship - A Win- Win-Win Proposition Peer-to-Peer Exchange Tuesday, January 21, 2014

LMI Internships in Vermont The Green Mountain Experience

Agenda Goals and Objectives Implementation LMI perspective: Outputs & Accomplishments Intern perspectives: Experiences & Skills Lessons learned

Project Partners & Key Stakeholders Employment & Training Administration The Vermont Department of Labor Our commissioner, Annie Noonan Our HR Department Workforce Development / America’s Job Centers Colleges and University Career Centers

LMI Goal & Objectives Goal: Use a peer mentoring model to help young people find employment and develop career paths in Vermont. Objectives: Expand LMI outreach efforts across the state Provide a meaningful and enriching work experience Support our local American Job Centers “Thanks for everything this summer: for reading my updates, sharing out-reach ideas, and offering support and guidance along the way. It has been an awesome experience for me.” -Megan Beatty, Burlington / St Albans Intern

AJC Goals & Objectives Goal: Increase the AJC’s ability to attract and support young people as they explore career opportunities Objectives: Increase awareness among youth about services offered at AJC’s Develop new strategies to assist “digital natives” using modern job search techniques Increase AJC’s capacity to assist “digital immigrants” “Not only did [the interns] add an extra person to assist with customer service, but both were technology savvy which in turn assisted job seekers with the complexity of online work search. They also offered new ideas for resolving everyday problems.” - Sally Girard, Burlington / St Albans Regional Supervisor

Intern Goal & Objectives Goal: Develop and explore personal career goals while gaining valuable skills and experience toward those goals. Objectives: Skills acquisition Public communications Basic labor market economics Data analysis Project management Professional, marketable work experience A stronger understanding of the barriers and challenges to employment “While helping others, I learned a lot which really helped me. I was able to use the tools and resources provided by the Vermont Department of Labor to get my next job.” – Hannah Bapp, Newport Office

Implementation Spring 2013, ETA approved the program as a pilot project, giving us the ability to stop the program at any time if it wasn’t working well VDoL created limited service positions which provide hiring and schedule flexibility Posted the positions to colleges, universities and other educational programs throughout the state Received almost 100 inquiries, interviewed approximately a dozen people What were we looking for? Who did we bring on?

Introductory LMI Training A two day LMI training meant to: Introduce interns to LMI data products Help interns think critically about labor data and career guidance, including asking them to critique pieces in the media and participate in role playing exercises Create a supportive environment where interns share resources, ideas and practices including outreach strategies Additional post-placement training by staff at American Job Centers

Intern Placements American Job Centers in: Newport St Albans Burlington Barre Middlebury Rutland Springfield Bennington And Department of Labor Headquarters in Montpelier

Tasks and Workload Interns worked between 15 and 40 hours per week Developed outreach plans and arranged outreach opportunities independently, sharing best practices with other interns Provided customer service support in Job Centers, assisting clients and learning about the range of programs we offer Submitted weekly reports to LMI and participated in periodic conference calls

Outputs & Accomplishments 9 interns hired Over 2,800 hours of work Approximately 100 outreach activities Reaching approximately 4,000 (mostly young) people New literature and materials to engage young people A video promoting our services to young people

Outputs

Lessons Learned The creation of this program increased LMI staff by over 50% - do not underestimate the time and effort required for training and oversight Giving interns flexibility to be creative and design their own outreach was empowering for most of them. Not allowing the use of social media challenged interns to find new (old?) ways of reaching others We would have benefitted from a standardized, weekly data collection system and a formal closeout procedure This proved to be a great opportunity to introduce young people to LMI, our career resources and the important work done in our regional offices

Thank You Mathew Barewicz Economic and Labor Market Information Chief Vermont Department of Labor (802) 828 – 4153 Kevin Stapleton Economic & Labor Market Information Assistant Chief Vermont Department of Labor (802) 828 –

National & Regional Contact Anthony Dais, National Office LMI Lead (202) Amanda Poirier, ETA Region 1 LMI Lead p. (617)

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