The Dan Marino Foundation, an organization that empowers adults with autism and developmental disabilities, launched a new program to make it easier for employers to hire their students.
“It’s just a great way for them to see what my skills are and what I’m able to do,” said Katherine, student at Dan Marino Foundation's Marino Campus.
Katherine is graduating at the end of September. She says she’s excited for her future.
“I want to work full-time with benefits and be in a place where I can keep learning and growing, and be the best employee that I know how to be,” said Katherine.
Her dream job is to work as a data entry analyst. Right now she’s in the Microsoft Specialist Program at the Dan Marino Foundation.
“Our main focus is to educate with training, making sure that are students have hard and soft skills, that are going to make them employable,” said Devika Ramkissoon, Director of Workforce Services at the Dan Marino Foundation.
Devika says their new feature called “Employ-A-Grad” directly links employers to the Marino Campus students seeking employment.
“We can target employers to come to our website and see profiles of the students we’re trying to get jobs for and basically match their skills and qualifications to vacancies within their own organizations,” added Devika.
Job opportunities are in the hospitality and computer technology industries.
“We have restaurant owners, hotels and pretty much anyone in the customer service entity, those are the jobs that our hospitality students can target. In the computer technology field, it’s basically help desk for individuals who need to trouble shoot their computers, networking, basically building or repairing computers,” said Devika.
Katherine has received her Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook certifications. She says the nonprofit, has changed her life.
“Coming here, has changed me, and I’m very grateful for them,” said Katherine.
If you’re an employer looking to hire, you can find more information here.
