STEP-UP provides different trainings tailored to two different tiers. They cover the similar material but go into further depth with the Achieve Interns.
Achieve: 16-21 years old, have gone through Discover and Explore
Explore: 16-21 years old (more at risk)
Training sessions are completed in one long session on one Saturday. They changed to this schedule from offering three evening sessions last year because it helped ease the burden on finding trainers and, transportation and helped with the retention rate of students. Tammy acknowledged that having multiple sessions would allow deeper learning.
They provide several dates in the months of March and April for participants to choose as their training date.
Their material is based the Dept of Labor Skills to Pay Bills material. Link.
Lesson topics are broken down into ten areas:
Jobs vs. Careers (15 min)
Networking (30 min)
Marketing Yourself, Online Presence, Cultural Competencies (25 min)
Resumes (60 min)
Interviewing (30 min)
Communication types/ situational communication (25 min)
Professional Communication/Etiquette/ Professionalism (25 min)
Attitude/Character (20 min)
Problem Solving/ Decision Making/ Ethics/ Asking Questions (20 min)
Landing the Job, Dress for Success, Starting your job (20 min)
Program Details (15 min)
Next Steps (15 min)
Feedback (20 min)
They schedule 9 trainers each day and can accommodate max 36 students per trainer (although they average 31 students), for four Saturdays (9am-4pm). (About 1450 students invited and 1160 trained through Achieve.) (640 attend from Discover)
Students are evaluated (both self evaluations and instructor) and ranked. The instructor evaluation is attached below. Areas evaluated are:
Punctuality
Participation
Attitude
Maturity
Flexibility
Communication
Confidence
Leadership
Students going to more challenging internships (health care) are given additional training. They also offer extra trainings like financial literacy.
Explore dedicates 2 hours a week to in-class instruction.