JASZ Technology

Putting Veterans and Others Back to Work

Toni Taylor — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:43:39 +0000

Dear Reader,

I am writing to request your support for a grass-roots effort to get our nation back to work. With disproportionately higher unemployment rates among “Gulf War-era II Veterans” at 29.1%, with non-veterans of the same age at 17.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in March 2012, The management and staff of JASZ Technology, a Raleigh IT firm, decided to do something to solve this problem.

Our strategy is to help service members to prepare for the civilian workforce before they leave the military. We are also connecting Veterans looking for new careers with employers offering jobs, through On the Job Training (OJT) and Apprenticeship programs.

JASZ Technology looks for candidates without the required skills, but have an aptitude, and a desire to learn. We place them on training paths to become – Call Center Agents, Technical Support Analysts, Certified Internet Marketing Specialists, and IT Account Representatives for example. They enter the program in an Apprentice or OJT status, and as a full-time employee of the organization. As they progress through the training, on to graduation they grow with the company on the same career path as their peers. The benefit to JASZ is that we gain well-trained, committed team members, filling important jobs within our organization, and we receive tax credits in the process.

It is my hope that you would lend your support to our mission. There are three critical ways that your organization can help. Learn More at http://www.jasztech.com/bwti/

Committing to establish an Apprenticeship and OJT program. Even a pilot program would be welcome. We would love to make the announcement about the program during the BWTI Expo on June 4, 2012 at the NC State Fairground, during the opening ceremonies. My team of volunteers can assist your organization with setting up a program with very little effort.

Operate a booth at the Expo to meet with Veterans and others seeking jobs, training, and an apprenticeships.

Tap into your personal and professional network of business leaders to encourage them to become a BWTI partner, creating Apprentice and OJT opportunities at their organization.

I would be extremely grateful for any contribution that you can make to the BWTI cause, and I look forward to your response. Please pass this along to other business owners and executives in your network.

Learn more about the BWTI Expo, on June 4th in Raleigh, NC at the Stat Fair Grounds

Learn more about Back to Work Through Innovation (BWTI)

Sincerely,

Antoinette L. Taylor

President and CEO JASZ Technology

Build Your Own Apprenticeship Program – Why #2

Sophie — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 05:00:47 +0000

Yesterday I talked about how an Apprenticeship Program benefits businesses because it allows them to have a constant pool of skilled staff to meet all of their business needs. Not only that but training apprentices from the beginning allows businesses to have more control over the quality of the products and services that are being produced. This is what leads me into the next benefit of having an Apprenticeship Program: It increases productivity and it also improves moral, which in turn helps produce higher quality of work.

Businesses strive day in and day out to improve their productivity, just because that leads the business to success. One of the reasons why having an Apprenticeship Program increases productivity is because a properly trained staff allows for the final product and service to have fewer mistakes, and ultimately it will then cost less to produce. Because like I mentioned yesterday, having an Apprenticeship Program gives businesses the opportunity to mold their apprentices into skilled employees who only know the right way of doing things.

By the end of the program businesses have a team of well-trained professionals that embody all of the company’s values and work ethics, which ensures a higher level of quality of production and increased productivity.

Join me tomorrow as I talk about how starting an Apprenticeship Program of your own is more cost-effective than hiring already skilled workers. See ya then!

Crisis Management Technology Innovations

Toni Taylor — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:29:29 +0000

We’ve developed two crisis management and disaster preparedness applications. The first application is for crisis management and disaster relief workers. Through technology the DEMAND CARD System allows relief personnel to assist more citizens faster – minutes versus hours, days, or months.

The second application, DEMAND Community gives every individual/citizen their own online disaster preparedness and disaster recovery plan by walking them through a step-by-step disaster preparedness process online from any device with a web browser and Internet access. Citizens – How would you like to click one button and be able to use social networking and your pre-arranged family disaster plan to update your friends and family on your safety and needs, get help finding loved ones, and notify relief agencies, and start the process of getting disaster assistance with one click of a mouse or touch of a key on your smart phone? Tell FEMA you need this (DEMAND Community) now!

Go to the FEMA Think Tank to comment and vote on this idea…

http://fema.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Crisis-Management-Technology-Innovations/315348-14692

Building Your Own Apprenticeship Program – Why #1 – All Skill Bases Are Covered

Sophie — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:25:35 +0000

Wouldn’t it be amazing if your business constantly had employees who have all mastered the skills of your industry, they’re all trained the exact same way and they all embody your business’ core values? Well, that concept is easily attainable by having your own Apprenticeship Program.

When you bring an apprentice on board with your company you essentially start off with a “tabula rasa,” or a blank slate. By that I mean that you will have someone who doesn’t just yet have the knowledge or skills to be successful in your industry. Many business owners would fear that idea; however, it’s a beautiful one. You will have the perfect opportunity to develop your apprentice the way you want to, you can choose what information you want to pour into them and you can also teach them the right way of doing things.

This is your chance to mold your apprentices into your ideal employees who will become experts in your business and will be able to then train others the same way you have developed them. Now you can have a team of apprentices that can duplicate themselves, and you will constantly have a pool of perfectly trained employees at hand at any time. This is ideal for businesses who want to expand or have future projects in the works.

Being able to cover all your bases when it comes to skills that your business demands, allows your business to be ready for whatever your current and future business endeavors may be. Knowing that you already have that team of apprentices that have become perfectly skilled employees will ease your stress and allow you to spend more time on other ways of making your business more successful.

Well, that’s it for now. Come back tomorrow when I’ll be talking about how having an Apprenticeship Program increases productivity in your business. Ciao!

Building Your Own Apprenticeship Program – The 4 Whys Behind It

Sophie — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:01:32 +0000

For the past few weeks we have been discussing how you can develop your own Apprenticeship Program for your business, but now it’s time for you to know WHY it’s important to develop your own program.

It’s obvious that after the economy took a hit a few years ago that the unemployment rate increased because businesses simply couldn’t afford to keep hiring, and many even had to let go most of their employees. However, the economy will not improve if that unemployment rate doesn’t decrease, which means that businesses have to start hiring again. And that’s where the Apprenticeship Program comes into play.

Here are the four main reasons why you should start an Apprenticeship Program of your own:

Your business will constantly have a pool of highly-skilled employees to cover all your needs in the short-term and in the future.
Productivity will increase and your business will produce higher quality work.
It’s VERY cost effective. Training apprentices costs less than hiring skilled workers.
You will have a team of employees that will always demonstrate loyalty to your company.

Stay tuned, because throughout the week I will talk more about each benefit that the Apprenticeship Program can bring to your business. See you guys tomorrow!

You Have Served Us – Now Let Us Serve You

Joseph — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:00:11 +0000

Literally, you have served us, now let us serve you. Today will be a day of seizing major opportunities and making connections to help Veterans for the greater good. As we all know today is Veteran’s Day and while most people are respectfully taking the day off in honor of those men and women who have served our country proudly, some of us will still be working. The type of work I’ll be doing today isn’t anything physically demanding, or a huge deadline on a project. I’m going to be focusing on finding companies and organizations that are doing something to honor our Veterans. Mainly because hundreds of companies in every size will be announcing what they’re doing for Veterans on this special day. This gives me the perfect opportunity to collect data and call them on Monday to ensure that their service to Veterans is more than one day each year.

When I call I’ll tell these companies about BWTI and how we’re going to help put “Vets and the Rest Back to Work Through Innovation!” I want to put BWTI and the Apprenticeship program on the minds of organizations who care about Veterans. I want to share our vision with you. Here at JASZ Tech we believe that “We the people…” can solve the jobs problem in America. There are 3.2 million open jobs in America. Businesses (excluding JASZ Tech of course) claim that their jobs have gone unfilled because they can’t find qualified workers to fill them. At JASZ Tech we’re advocating for filling these and future job vacancies through apprenticeships. Teach Veterans new skills to fill your open jobs, not only will the organization get tax breaks and other incentives, but they get custom trained employees perfectly tailored to perform the job. We’re teaching other businesses how to setup apprenticeships and get Vets and the Rest Back to Work. This is our rally cry…BACK TO WORK – BACK TO WORK – BACK TO WORK

Lastly, I want to thank all Veterans who have served and are still serving our country. You are our heroes!

Would You Listen to a Soccer Coach Who Only Played Baseball?

Joseph — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:08:13 +0000

Of course you wouldn’t, and that’s why I spent most of my day yesterday prospecting. I was talking to customers the same way I will be teaching my Apprentices to do in the future. I did that because after reflecting on my years of experience in sales, I realized that leadership by example is the key ingredient in creating a successful company or division.

I’ve been in organizations where the leader wasn’t capable of duplicating the systems he was instilling in us and wouldn’t bring in the results himself. But then, I’ve also worked for a company where the leader was a true leader. The high standards he would hold up for us he would surpass them each and every day, and would prove to us that his techniques and tricks of the trade were successful. Here at JASZ I will strive to be a leader who sets the bar high and breaks it, to prove to my apprentices that what I teach them is the absolute best. A leader is someone who has been in the trenches, someone who will ask you to do something and they have already done it and are willing to show you the right way of doing it. A sales force always needs a “white rabbit” or a pinnacle they can look to for motivation and inspiration, so it’s important to have that type of person in the organization. We will be bringing on board our first Apprentices in January and I will be that example they can follow, that leader who can duplicate his results over and over again.

Creating Your Apprenticeship Program – Part 2

Joseph — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:00:56 +0000

With any successful program there are always rules. When it comes to creating an Apprenticeship Program there is one main rule that stands out, your program has to have a certain number of hours. For our labor categories we needed to develop 2,880 – 6,000 hours of raining. For every 2,000 hours of On the Job Training we need to have 144 hours of related study or coursework. Last week I talked about how to create the coursework portion for the related study, now I am going to discuss some tips on how to create the breakdown for the On the Job Training (OJT).

At first I was overwhelmed by the thought of planning out 2,880 hours of training, and I had no idea where to start. So, my colleague helped me by helping me to talk out my thoughts and suggested that I plan out the training schedule day by day until I reached at least 2,880 hours.

I thought this was I good approach so I thought about all of the tasks that an Apprentice would perform in a year, and figure out how much time they should spend on each task. It is important to be very detailed with each task that we include into this breakdown. It is better and actually more efficient to spend the extra time to come up with a through plan now, then to hire your Apprentice, begin the apprenticeship, and realize that you have missed incorporating some critical skills in your training program. Planning out a solid training schedule for the 12-18 months allows you to dedicate more of your effort into actually training the Apprentice.

Now, obviously I can’t share with you the On the Job Training plan that I’ve created for my Sales Team, since it’s our secret recipe for success, but I can tell you this: If there is a task or goal that you’re trying to accomplish, think of your end result and break it down into bite-sized pieces.

Feds Hire Vets

Toni Taylor — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:05:41 +0000

On November 9, 2009, President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13518, Employment of Veterans in the Federal Government, which establishes the Veterans Employment Initiative. The Initiative is a strategic, yet very straightforward, approach to helping the men and women who have served our country in the military find employment in the Federal Government. It also underscores the importance of aligning the talents of these individuals with key positions so the Government is better positioned to meet mission objectives and citizens are better served.

Learn More…

Learn more about other efforts to get Veterans Back to Work Through Innovation at:

http://www.jasztech.com/bwti/about-the-initiative/

Looking for a job or new career attend our Free Expo

Getting Kids Interested in Science and Technology

Toni Taylor — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:40:02 +0000

Two components of our grass-roots effort – Back to Work Through Innovation (BWTI), you can learn more about it here http://www.jasztech.com/bwti/, are to:

Mentor Students in Grades 3 – 12 and College Freshmen into Engineering Careers
Make a significant contribution toward graduating 10,000 more engineering students from U.S. colleges and universities each year

Our biggest challenge is identifying how to get kids interested in computer science and engineering studies. How do we engage them as young as the third grade, and how do we mentor them through college graduation to keep them engaged? Our hope is to develop a strategy and then to recruit engineers to mentor the children, and to go into schools to raise awareness among students, teachers, faculty, and parents so that we can work as a community to graduate more Engineers.

If you are an Engineer, we’d like to hear from you by answering a few questions.

What age were you when you decided that you were going to become an Engineer?
Did a person or event get you interested in an engineering career, and if so would you tell us about it?
What steps should we take to achieve our goals?
Would you be interested in volunteering as an engineering mentor, or contributing in some way to our goals? If yes we’ll follow up with you by email.

Thank you for your participation – Please share this blog and ask your friends, family, and colleagues studying to become an engineer or an engineering field to comment.

Thank you