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Month: August 2017

Student Success: Julie Nguyen

As a first generation college student at ASU, Julie Nguyen is a rising junior studying nursing with a minor in personal health.

By educationworkadmin
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As a first generation college student at Arizona State University, Julie Nguyen is a rising junior studying nursing with a minor in personal health. Julie is passionate about providing care for babies and young children, which is her inspiration for wanting to become a neonatal nurse. However, she knew the cost of earning her nursing degree would be difficult to finance without some additional support. Fortunately, Julie received an email from the Education at Work (EAW) recruiting team about an on-campus job to provide social media customer support for an online payments processor. Even though this job was not directly related to her major, Julie decided to take the opportunity for the tuition assistance (TA) support and real world work experience. By leveraging EAW’s TA program, Julie has earned $6,000 to date, which has helped close the gap to fund her education without taking out any student loans.

As a result of working with EAW, Julie has learned critical personal and professional skills that will help prepare her for entering the workforce as a capable neonatal nurse. For example, Julie has developed communication and management skills while assisting our client’s customers with account issues and processing their online payments. This valuable skill set will be useful for successfully navigating a chaotic hospital work environment, as well as effectively interacting with patients and their concerned family and friends. In addition, working at EAW has taught Julie how to protect the security of customers’ data, which will translate well to a hospital where patient records need to be closely guarded.

Julie also values the student-centered culture at EAW where she enjoys working in a fast-paced contact center environment. Julie has received tremendous support from her supervisors and fellow coworkers both academically and professionally, which has helped her balance the responsibilities of work and school. All of her EAW team leaders emphasize they are available to mentor her and are willing to “go to the extra mile” to assist her when workplace challenges and issues with customers arise. She has learned how to establish professional and personal relationships within a caring dynamic.

Our EAW team is excited to see how Julie’s strong work ethic and caring nature will translate into a long-term career as an accomplished neonatal nurse. We believe Julie’s current work experience and on-the-job skill set, paired with her nursing degree and proper training, will position her to make a strong impact in the world through supporting some of the most vulnerable patients in the neonatal unit.

Priceless Value Proposition

If you’re reading this blog, I’m impressed. Education at Work (EAW) is not, yet, a household name.

By educationworkadmin
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If you’re reading this blog, I’m impressed. Education at Work (EAW) is not, yet, a household name. However, if you are reading this blog, hopefully you will come away with an understanding of the differentiators that are considered in the design and development of the budget to execute our BPO-based mission, for they are many.

From day one, Education at Work was built around the question, “How can the BPO industry enhance the relevant job skills and reduce the debt burden of college students across the country?”  The answer led us to build front and back office support centers on college campuses across the country. We’ve teamed up with some of America’s most iconic brands to do just that.

Education at Work Value Proposition

Every aspect of how EAW recruits, trains, schedules, and manages the student agent is unique and designed to ensure a high touch and consistent experience is delivered to our clients' customers.

The differences, however, do not end at the agent life cycle. As a member of our client development team, I get to witness firsthand the elation of potential partners as we discuss how EAW’s value and social mission can tangibly help a company achieve their customer experience goals and help them build a future talent pipeline. I am also the one who gets to answer the question, “Tim, this seems like something we would really love to explore, but (in a bold and double-underlined tone) how much does it cost?”

How much does it cost?  How much more or less will the leader of the client’s organization have to rationalize to utilize a model constructed around a smart, energetic workforce engaged in front-line customer experience today, while being holistically groomed to join the client’s incoming talent pipeline tomorrow? The answer to that question cannot be fully dealt with in the span of a blog post, but I can highlight yet another way in which EAW is different in our partnership approach.

Education at Work invites our clients to play an active part in the price needed to support the student mission. Our standards are simple and student focused and all client requirements beyond this standard are open and negotiable. Our centers are built custom to our client’s needs, which takes money. They are built with the security protocol, technological requirements, leadership ratios, dedicated training space, and corporate leadership functions necessary to ensure success, which takes money. We purposefully build this model in partnership with our clients to ensure they see what each item costs, are able to agree to or alter the requirements, and commit to a price that is mutually beneficial to all parties while staying focused on the mission. The nirvana is when these companies hire the graduates into their full-time workforce saving approximately $3600/hire.

Education at Work is different. Different in our design, in our delivery, and in our execution. Different in our model and value proposition to our client partners and dedicated to an amazing social mission. Our approach to pricing is different too, we aren’t the cheapest nor are we designed to be.

My hope is someday you will have an opportunity to meet just one student representing the many, many success stories of our program and then, you will know why.

Author: 

Tim Moore, Vice President of Mission Growth at Education at Work

Tim Moore Vice President of Mission Growth, Education at Work
Connect with him on LinkedIn

 

Student Success: Tanner Campbell

Tanner Campbell, a first-gen college student, is determined to set himself up for a successful “Super Senior” year at NKU.

By educationworkadmin
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Tanner Campbell, a first generation college student, is determined to set himself up for a successful “Super Senior” year at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) where he plans to complete his degree in Organizational Leadership. As a graduating high school senior, NKU was Tanner’s top choice and the only school to which he applied. The choice was easy, but the funding required creativity to make his dream of earning a degree affordable. Through a combination of scholarships and tuition assistance from Education at Work, Tanner has been able to pay for all 5-years of his undergraduate education, supplemented with only $3,000 in student loans. Compared to the national average student debt for U.S. graduates of over $30,000, Tanner’s debt load is considerably smaller. Once Tanner graduates, he will be in a favorable position to quickly pay off his student loan debt.

Over the past year and a half, Tanner has been working on a global financial services program supporting customers on their 401k and savings plans. The client is an innovative financial services company, providing an opportunity for Tanner and others like him to work part-time in a professional environment while still in school. During his tenure on the program, Tanner has honed valuable real world job skills, such as corporate communication, problem solving, and patience. In addition, Tanner has further developed his skill set for asking insightful on-the-job questions and providing direction to his team through utilizing his quick problem-solving ability.

Throughout Tanner’s life, he has worked hard to overcome adversity on a daily basis. He was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome in the 6th grade, and has learned how to manage it effectively by implementing coping mechanisms and minimizing his daily stress levels. Through working on the phones in a customer support position, Tanner has learned to better control the symptoms associated with his Tourette’s, which can impact behavior, muscular movement and mood. For example, the process he was trained on to help customers with their 401k and savings plans has allowed him to build a consistent routine around a calling script. This routine is important for managing compulsive behavior, word repetition, and hyperactivity. Also, engaging in frequent conversation with people has allowed Tanner to build more confidence, while reducing anxiety and apprehension associated with social interactions. At work, Tanner has improved his interpersonal skills, matured, and developed the ability to be more assertive through tasks requiring critical thinking.

Our team is impressed with Tanner’s strong work ethic and proud of his determination to overcome his daily challenges. We believe he will be a valuable asset to any organization and look forward to seeing where his bright future takes him, whether it’s a full-time position with our current client or beyond.

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