Employment Resources Incorporated (ERI) offers a variety of youth programs and services.  In addition to two separate special education alternative day schools, ERI operates the federally funded Workforce Investment Act (WIA) youth program.  We work with disadvantaged youth, ages 14-21, who are in school or graduated/dropped out of school.  We provide them with an educational and career interest assessment.  Based on their assessment results, we then provide them with a variety of services to help them reach both their educational (i.e. pass an SOL test, pass an English class, graduate High School...) and career goals (i.e. put them in a paid work experience program with a local employer, pay for  them to get their driver's license, pay for them to start classes at Germanna, provide them competency-based career planning, work readiness and independent living skills, develop jobs for them, job placement, and follow-up...).  ERI's staff work individually with each of our youth, and we are very successful in helping them to meet their goals!

ERI partners with local school divisions, court service units, departments of social services, local governments and other organizations to develop and implement programs that meet identified needs in the community.  For example, ERI staff teach career education classes and offer leadership, character education and school-to-work transition programs in public schools, and work with over 500 youth each year in our varied programs.

ERI's workforce development strategies include:

  • Assessments identify youth's interests and abilities so that they can be matched with appropriate jobs in the community.
  • Fill in skill gaps, whether they be academic (help youth obtain High School Diploma/GED or Post-Secondary Education Program) or job-specific (by placing youth in cooperative education, internship and/or work experience programs so that theycan learn to do jobs from area employers) thereby making them more marketable.
  • Competency-based work readiness skills training - in addition to basic job search and retention skills, we focus on developing the "soft" skills that will make them valuable to employers (i.e. showing up for work on time, effective communication skills...).
  • Working with area businesses to identify their employment needs and then training youth to fill these needs.
  • Intense follow-up services ensures that both the employer and youth employee are happy.

ERI assists employers in marketing their company by offering employers opportunities:

  • to meet with students (their future workforce) in our career education classes.
  • to let youth tour their facility to learn what they do.
  • to get involved in our cooperative education, internship and work experience programs, so that they can train youth to do jobs at their facility (free labor for the employer that allows them an opportunity to look at a youth before hiring him or her).
  • to advertise openings (we'll match appropriate youth to the jobs).
  • to pay for customized skills training classes to train youth the company will hire.

ERI helps the RADCO community with economic development by:

  • identifying educational and workforce development needs of youth EARLY - and then designing programs that will meet these needs.  This makes our local workforce better workers!
  • offering youth opportunities to learn about employers in their own community so that they will want to stay here and work.

For more information about ERI, please contact Andrea Kenny at 540.372.6710, via e-mail, or visit our website.