Employment Specialist

Location: New York

Purpose: To provide all assistance, support, training and coaching on needed skills necessary to enable program participants to obtain or maintain competitive employment in integrated work settings. This work is performed in services such as Supported Employment (SEMP), ACCES-VR or Community Based Pre-Vocational (Pre-Voc) training.

Reports to: SEMP and/ or Community Based Pre-Voc Program Coordinator or Director.

Job Details

Job Location: Hybrid

Salary Range: $24 - $28 per hour

Position Type: Full Time

Job Category: Employment Services

Education Level: High School or GED

Areas of General Responsibility

Screening

You may be responsible for participating in the screening of applicants for supported employment or pre-vocational training services. This includes (but is not limited to):

• Developing key questions or learning experiences to assess present levels of skills with a potential program member.
• Providing feedback/ input to Birch leadership on appropriateness of Birch services for the individual.

Assessment and Planning Prior to Beginning Services

Prior to beginning services, you are responsible for developing assessment opportunities and experiences to better understand top strengths and areas for growth (e.g. top reasons why the person is likely not, yet, ready for employment). Additionally, you are responsible for:

• Developing a scope and sequence (a learning plan) for the individual that will help drive skill development for the individual to meet their life plan goals.
• Working with and seeking out feedback from your direct manage to ensure your plan, tactics and approach are effective for helping drive results for the program member.
• Devising internal learning plan goals and monitoring progress towards meeting those goals by an established date.

Pre-Employment Training and/ or Completing Discovery

It is your responsibility to teach skills and create learning experiences for the program member that will lead to greater independence in the job search process and/ or becoming more ready for employment. You are required to:

• Proactively share plans and seek feedback from your direct manager/ coach to ensure that your plans, strategy, approach, and tactics are as effective as possible.
• If necessary, complete a discovery report for the Employment Training Program (ETP) within the allotted timeframe that will yield a clear plan of top strengths, areas of growth and best fit job opportunities for the program member. If completing discovery for a person in ETP, you are required to attend OPWDD Innovations trainings (named ETP 101) and seek support from your supervisor/ coach on effective strategies for completing discovery.

Opportunity And Experience Development

As the expert on the program members you work with, you are responsible for leading efforts to create and develop work (paid or unpaid) experiences that are aligned with service/ program goals (SEMP and pre-voc) goals, along with the identified goals and interests of the program member. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Developing volunteer experiences in a field of interest, internship opportunities, situational assessment sites that meet ETP program requirements and paid work opportunities in an integrated, competitive setting. While you may work with your supervisor and/ or a job developer to help you create opportunities, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring opportunities and experiences are created in a timely manner.
• Contacting and convincing potential employers and work experience sites (going in-person, calling, emailing, leveraging other sites like Linked In), helping modify existing jobs to better meet the program member’s needs (customization), provide information on incentives and supports available to employers.

Personal Organization

As someone who is teaching job skills to program members, you are required to maintain personal organization systems that ensure you meet all deliverables for your position. This includes but is not limited to:

• Maintaining your calendar to clearly identify all billable time (direct and indirect hours) worked
• Task/ to-do lists for work with your supervisor/ coach and with each program member (e.g. next steps…