Workforce System Success Stories - Workforce Development and Adult Learning

Meet Andrea...
Andrea comes up with creative solutions to reach jobseekers with transportation barriers.

Like Maryland Department of Labor workforce staff across the State, Workforce Development Specialist Andrea Kenney sometimes needs to come up with creative solutions to get her customers the help they need. Although she usually leads reemployment workshops onsite at the Salisbury, Maryland American Job Center (AJC), she was working with two jobseekers in August of 2023 who needed immediate assistance with interviewing skills ahead of upcoming job interviews, but neither had the transportation to meet Andrea at the AJC. To get these customers the help they needed to succeed, Andrea scheduled an AJC Mobile Workforce Unit to meet them at a local library they could both reach. Grateful for her support, they arrived on time, participated in mock interviews, and used the computers available on the mobile unit to print out paper copies of their resumes to distribute to their prospective employers at their scheduled interviews. Because they were meeting in person, Andrea noticed one of the jobseeker’s body language and encouraged her to sit up straight in her chair and make eye contact with the hiring manager during the interview to convey confidence. Both customers reported back within three weeks that they had landed jobs, and Andrea was thanked by the jobseeker whose posture she called attention to. Andrea shared that “she told me she was surprised at how different she felt about herself just by throwing back her shoulders. She credited that one factor as the most important part of convincing the employer she was the right person for the job.”