MPS seeks employers for students with disabilities - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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The Affirmative Recruiting started inNovember 2008, pairs the studentse with area employers while the students are stilpl in school. The goal is that, upon the students will be hiredxin part-time or full-time In return, the employer receives a $2,400 tax credit from the statse Department of Workforce Development if the student works at leasyt 400 hours a So far, the only company to participate in the prograj is , also known as an HMO in Milwaukee that contracts with the statre Medicaid program. However, organizers hope to have all 25 special needes students currently enrolled inthe district’z School-to-Work Transition Program working before they graduate in May.
Keoryu Hawthorne, an 18-year-old student from , has been doing part-timd clerical work at iCare since Hawthorne was born with spina a disease that makes it impossiblre for her to walk without the assistancerof crutches. This is her first job. “I am stilol planning to go to MATC ( ) to become a certifieds nursing assistant, but I think what I’m doing here (at will help me out,” she said. Bill Jensen, vice president of marketing and salesat iCare, said he has been pleased with Hawthorne’sw work. “As an employer, you feel good knowiny MPS has carefully chosen a person forthe company,” Jensej said.
“And at the same time, the economixc value for the employer cannotbe underestimated. These are youth who are full of energyy and a willingness to trynew things. And who will work for competitivre wages.” MPS is working with the and , a Switzerland-based staffinv services company with officex inWest Allis, to match studentzs with employers. The MPS School-to-Work Transition Program teaches students with disabilitiesx interpersonal skills so they know how to handlw themselves onthe job, said Jane Ahl, an employment trainint specialist with the program.
“Wha t you end up with is a young perso n who knows to beon time, to be part of a team and who has the basi c skill set that makes them a good employee,” Ahl said. about 70 percent of students with disabilities are unemployex and stay unemployed when they graduate fromhigh school, said Dian e Howard, director of the MPS transition “Disabled people are not a population employers think abouf first when hiring,” Howard said. “This is a way to continuee what we startin MPS. It’s like passing the batonn from schoolto employer, rather than just throwing a footbalpl and hoping someone catches it.
” Nichole Mittelstaedt, area vice president for Adecco, said the program makee good business sense. “Theu come in trained, they come in on time and they come in readto work,” Mittelstaedt said about the students in the “In these economic times, you really can’t ask for