Transcript - slide 7
How do you recommend that other hospitals or businesses get started?

Interviewer:  How do you recommend that other hospitals or businesses get started?

Susie Rutkowski:  First of all, we would love to have you visit. One of the ways that you could get started is to start a high school program. High school students quickly change your culture. They are young, have lots of energy, and people usually like high school kids. They know that they are in a learning environment, and we're here to all reach the goal together of employment. There is no guarantee that all the students get hired at that business or that hospital. But, you can pick the ones that best fit your needs and organization. That is certainly one way to get started, creating a high school program. The students are treated like any other students, especially in a medical environment. They are used to students, like nursing students, doctoral students, etc. So, it works well in a high school. In most other businesses, they are used to student interns or student apprentices, and it is very comfortable for businesses to start a student program. The twist is just that these are kids with disabilities, and it's about career exploration with the end goal of employment.

The other way to get started is, if you have a cluster of jobs that you want start with, like we did with the couriers. That would be one way to hire a small group of folks to do a job. This is what we call a job cluster. However, if you have a few jobs that are nontraditional but could be systematically trained, then that's another good way to start.

Interviewer:  In your school program, are these unpaid work experiences?

Susie Rutkowski:  Yes they are. Students actually rotate through at least 4 work experiences throughout the year. We follow all the wage and hour regulations. The students are not supplanting any other kinds of jobs. They are getting high school credit while they are there. The neat thing is that they can be hired at any time throughout the school year. Once they are hired, they remain as students for support purposes, but then they become an employee. Their schedule would have to change, if they need to work 7 to 4 instead of coming to school 8 to 3. But to begin with, they are students. They get credit not pay and these are just like other unpaid work experiences. The difference is that they are under one roof for the whole year, and they get to know that organization.

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