Crafting Confidence

5 Unexpected Benefits of Wedgwood’s Employment Training Program

The teens receiving specialized treatment and care in Wedgwood’s Residential Program have often experienced a lot of heavy, heartbreaking things in their young lives. Our residential care works to help restore their physical, social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual well-being through a variety of programs and services.

Wedgwood’s Employment Training Program (ETP) is one of those donor-funded programs available to teens.

Teens apply, interview, and are hired into the program. Student employees at Wedgwood’s ETP work on a variety of projects to earn money – lawn care, car detailing, upholstery, and making handcrafted products in the woodshop and sewing room. While this program is designed to help give kids work experience, they end up learning and growing in so many more ways. 

Here are 5 ways that Wedgwood’s ETP is transforming the lives of teens.

Confidence

From the interview process, to their first task, to earning more responsibilities, Wedgwood’s ETP provides an environment for kids to build confidence. 

The staff members at Wedgwood’s ETP are quick to give encouragement and feedback. Even if a teen is so nervous in their interview that they are shaking, by the end of it they are smiling. They are told what they did well and some areas that they could work on. 

As they start working in Wedgwood’s ETP, kids go from being unsure about how to complete a task and nervous to do things incorrectly, to learning more tasks and even helping newer student employees learn the ropes. We begin to see their spirit’s shine! 

The Wedgwood’s ETP staff are always there to challenge and encourage kids when they don’t believe they can do something. With the team’s loving push, kids see that they are in fact capable. Kids begin to feel success in something they are doing – which makes them feel good about what they are doing, and who they are. 

Sense of Ownership

Because many of the kids in Wedgwood’s care come to us from tumultuous backgrounds, they often lack a sense of stability. But in Wedgwood’s ETP, there is routine and the opportunity to see, and be a part of something, from start to finish. 

Being able to say “I made that!” or, “I did this!” is great point of pride for our student employees. 

This sense of ownership in their work, and the team they are a part of shows itself in the excitement kids feel about being at work. Kids look forward to clocking in and diving into the day’s tasks, and sometimes don’t want to leave when their shift is over because they want to keep working on their project.  

Balance

While employed at Wedgwood’s ETP, kids learn how to establish a healthy work-life balance. As a student employee, good grades, positive behaviors, and improvements in therapy are just as important as the work. They learn how all these things are connected and can impact the other areas of their lives.

The staff also remind and model to kids that even if they had a rough day, they have responsibilities at work. Once they leave Wedgwood’s care, they will have important things – like rent and bills – that need to be taken care of, regardless of their mood. 

There is a sense of compartmentalization kids learn. At work, the Wedgwood’s ETP staff are not their parents or friends, they are their bosses. While the staff care deeply about the teens, they show kids what is appropriate for the workplace, and what is better discussed and dealt with off the clock.

Second Chances

The grace that is so integral to the care provided at Wedgwood is evident within the Employment Training Program.

Like any other person, the student employees aren’t perfect at their tasks on the first try. Staff members will tell them to try again, and keep working until they get it right – because they know and believe the kids can do it! One mistake isn’t the end of the world – kids are shown grace, and given a chance to fix it, and to learn how to do it better the next time.

The staff focus heavily on feedback, rather than discipline. But part of growth is learning and understanding that actions have consequences. If necessary, teens can be suspended from work for a week to reflect on the choices they made. But every time a teen is suspended, they are given an appointment with Program Manager, Jackie, to discuss their choices and coming back to work. Even if the teen isn’t ready to return, or continues to make choices that get them fired from the program – the door to start a discussion about returning is always open!

Relationships

Working in Wedgwood’s ETP is a great opportunity for teens to build relationships with peers and learn how to conduct such relationships in a workplace environment. Teens are learning and developing social skills in other parts of their treatment, and interacting with kids outside their Home presents opportunities to put those skills to use and develop them further.

Understanding healthy relationships with authority figures and their supervisors is just as important! Many of the kids at Wedgwood don’t have examples of what it means to be a good employee in their lives. Being taught, and shown, how to have and keep a job is crucial. The Wedgwood ETP staff often become mentors for the student employees and serve as examples of adults on which the teens can rely. 

A clear sign of the importance of the relationships kids build while employed at Wedgwood’s ETP are the ones that continue even after kids leave Wedgwood’s care. The Employment Training Program team regularly hear from past student employees – giving updates, looking for advice, and asking for references. Past student employees have seen, and know, that Wedgwood and the Employment Training Program are rooting for their success and will support them as best they can.

Learn more about Wedgwood’s Employment Training Program, the services and products offered, and how to get connected. Wedgwood’s ETP also has an Etsy Shop, where you can find handcrafted items made by our residents. Your purchase directly support the kids in the program and their future.

We talked in-depth with Wedgwood’s Employment Training Program Manager, Jackie Brewster about the program and the impact it has on the teens in Wedgwood’s care. Listen to the full-length conversation on the Wedgwood podcast on Spotify and our webpage or watch the video of our Wedgwood Coffee Break Conversation on our YouTube page.