Equipping education, workforce and HR professionals to unlock access to better jobs

Maria Young

Senior Workforce Advisor, FMS Private Industry Council/FMS Workforce Career Center
joined almost 3 years ago.

Certifications:

Recent Activity:

Posted in Career Pathway Systems Challenges and Successes

I feel that my biggest challenge has been trying to keep my customers on track and engaged in their training. Unfortunately, there have been a couple of times when I have had some customers not finish school for whatever reason or they finish school and then they do not take their state boards. My biggest success is when they do complete and they do get that license or degree and they end up getting that job, sometimes before they even finish their training.

Posted in Strategies for Facilitating Difficult Meeting Conversations

I would email the agenda ahead of time and ask stakeholders to email me any questions or concerns. I would want to know where most of the attention is going to be so we can focus more time on that and try to resolve any issues but also keep the scheduled time frame so that everyone stays on track by not letting any one person hijack the meeting.

Posted in Strategies for Addressing Communication Challenges

There have been times where I was not able to communicate with a customer well because they either did not want to hear what I had to say or I wasn't the right person to communicate with them. Unfortunately, this happens. In this case, I have had to refer them to another coworker who I believe will be able to communicate with them better. Some people are just able to connect with other people better and are able to get through to them and help them better. It has happened the other way around as well at times.

Posted in Best Practices in Critical Thinking

I use critical thinking in almost every aspect of my work I feel. I do think that at times, looking at certain scenarios from different perspectives can be difficult. I love the feedback from other people but sometimes when you you have done the research and you feel like you have come up with the best solution, it is hard to look at it from another perspective. 

Posted in Inspiring Leader Attributes

I have heard our director speak to members of our board and help them understand certain aspects of our job or what we need and what we need them to approve for us s that we could work better in certain areas or help us help our customers better. I think that their effective communication and the way that they care about us and the customer shows when they are inspiring and motivating our board to approve these things for us.