Every year Springdale/PIVOT’s contractor, MTC, offers an Innovation and Impact Award to its centers. This award encourages centers to look at areas they want to improve performance in and come up with creative and effective ways to do that.

This year, PIVOT’s Site Director, Tyna Moreschi, decided to throw their hat in the ring for the grand prize of $10,000 for the work she and Employment Specialist Jessica Corpuel did to improve the placement rate for students transitioning out of the program. Over the course of the last year PIVOT increased its placement rate from 73% to 86%. What that means is that almost every student was placed before they left or soon after.

Tyna and Jessica developed creative ways to improve students’ chances of finding a position. “We want them to walk out our doors with their credentials, and through the doors of an employer,” said Jessica.

Their methods included requiring students to hold informational interviews with people in fields students were interested in, and holding “speed interviewing” sessions where students would bring a resume and be interviewed by employers for existing positions. Students also attended a live resume event. At this event students worked on their elevator speeches and presented them to employers, who gave feedback and guidance on how students presented themselves.

In addition to these activities, Jessica also worked closely with staffing agencies to place students in temp positions that would help them build their resume, as well as temp-to-hire positions that would set them on a career path.

Their prize for all this hard work was recognition from MTC and a $4000 cash prize for the center. Tyna was excited for the prize, but knows what the real win is. “The award is nice, but ultimately it’s about our students getting the jobs they were trained to do and setting them up for future success.”