STEP For Business

Student Transition Employment Program


Businesses Partner With Local Schools to Produce Employees of the Future

What is STEP:

STEP (Student Transition Employment Program) is a partnership between Stand Up Inc., local city or county high schools, and community businesses. It is designed to aid participants in learning the necessary skills to become successful in a competitive workplace environment.

Through various classroom and hands-on learning experiences, the students will leave the program having learned valuable social skills, interpersonal communication skills, work ethics, safety training, and many other concepts related to the workforce.

Benefits of STEP:

  • Invest in the community by giving students real life work experience
  • Educate employees on diversity in the workplace
  • Help students feel a part of the community

What can a STEP site expect during the program?

  • To have a Job Coach on site providing support to students
  • Identify future potential employees
  • Give back to the community by providing educational opportunities

A Student’s Perspective:

“I learned so many different things from this class. For instance I learned what I need to do to be work ready. What it means to have a job and everything. But what I really like about this program is that we actually got to go out and work at real job sites.

I would have to say that it really doesn’t look as easy as I thought it was. But the job coaches put a lot of effort into helping us succeed. They showed us how to do things right and everything. If I thought that for once that everything that I thought about this real world was easy then I would be up the creek without a paddle.

Because this class lets you see that the real world isn’t everything that you think that it is. It’s really harder than you think. Because you have to get a job, save money, then get a car, and then make a budget on what you can do next. It really takes a while to get work ready trust me. But when you are work ready you will know exactly what to do, and how you want to do it.

You will have to get your job in order first before you make any big plans.  When I started on the job sites my attendance wasn’t so good. I missed more days then I was here. Eventually I got to another job site that had interested me more and, more. That job site was Golden Corral.

While I was there I didn’t miss not one day of school that month. I came day after day. Only because I really want to do something like that after I graduate. Because I like working with customers and money. The first time I got to work up front with Nikkei and, Lucy I had so much fun and I would love to be able to do that for real. I think that I could do it as long as I put my heart to it. I think that I might actually do that.”

-STEP Student

To learn more about the STEP Program contact, Kelly Reichard, Executive Director and Director of Transition Services, at (434) 316-7140 or by email at [email protected] To learn more about Stand Up, Inc. go to www.StandUp-Inc.com or email us at [email protected].

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