Two words on a flyer at the local laundromat caught Francisco Mora's eye- guaranteed job . Mora had finished high school three years behind his class and, still unsure where to find a solid job with good pay, bounced from job to job. The flyer led Mora to an orientation for the call center training program at Goodwill Industries of Toronto. Mora liked what he heard and entered the program's intensive screening process. He became one of 15 at-risk youth chosen from approximately 115 applicants.
Participants spend eight weeks learning customer service, teamwork and assertiveness skills.
They also use role-playing exercises to act as managers, customers and sales representatives so they'll know how to keep their cool handling customer complaints. Financed by the Royal Bank Financial Group, the program's Centre for Training Excellence was recently honored by the U.S. National Youth Employment Coalition's Promising and Effective Practices Network for its success in helping youth become lifelong learners, productive workers and self-sufficient citizens. To date, the program boasts a 95 percent success rate and the number of partners has grown from five to 22. Goodwill of Toronto hopes to replicate its success throughout Canada this year. I got in trouble early in high school and didn't prepare for college.