From TAA/NAFTA and WIOA client to Employed
After 21 years with SECO, Sandy found herself unemployed due to a plant closure in 2017. This plant closing was a trade event. She discovered the WIOA workforce services and decided that she no longer wanted to work in a factory setting with looming long-term layoffs always a possibility. Sandy decided to return to school to better her employment prospects.
With help from Workforce Investment Opportunity Act (WIOA) funding, Sandy received various supportive services that enabled her to go to college. She achieved her goal of getting an AAS in the Administrative Assistant program from Shawnee Community College, graduating in December 2019.
Sandy entered into a Work Experience program at Shawnee Development Council, Inc., which allowed her to gain real work experience for her newly chosen profession. Throughout Sandy’s Work Experience program, she excelled in her duties to the point where she accepted a job offer as a WIOA Career Planner at Shawnee Development Council, Inc. She is now using her own successful experiences with the WIOA program to help her WIOA clients achieve their own success—through education and/or finding employment.