Working Together to Help Iowans with Disabilities Find Careers

Garrett Pierce is on his way to a promising career - thanks, at least partly, to a concentrated effort by several units of Iowa Workforce Development to cooperate more effectively in helping Iowans with disabilities find jobs.

Pierce, who has challenges with introversion and social anxiety, began meeting with counselors from IWD's Vocational Rehabilitation Services division in high school to help him better prepare for the workplace. After he graduated from Des Moines Area Community College with an associate's degree in information technology, vocational rehabilitation counselors connected Pierce with another part of IWD to focus on landing a job.

Sara Bath, who has worked with both Vocational Rehabilitation and as a manager in the Des Moines IowaWORKS office, said Pierce's case was referred to Core Four - a pilot program created to encourage more information sharing between Voc Rehab, IowaWORKS, IWD's Business Engagement team, and all the other agencies who provide Title I services under the U.S. Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).

Bath worked with Pierce to set up meetings with business leaders so he could discuss various career options. Pierce quickly decided that he'd like to pursue a job involving data servers, but he had no idea how to go about that.

"Clearly, he's a smart young man, but he can struggle with social interactions," Bath said. "Our biggest concern was his lack of work experience."

The Core Four team initially thought that some form of internship or work experience program would be the most helpful thing for Garrett. While they searched for ways to make that happen, Pierce took part in several resume and job interviewing workshops. Bath urged him to apply for several jobs each week.

Shortly thereafter, with contacts provided by Erin Webb, a WIOA career planner, Pierce sought out and landed a position with Tek System, a temp-to-hire job service for information technology positions. He now works with servers at a Microsoft data center.

"It's been going pretty well," he said. "They've been training me... and they've been giving me more stuff to do on my own."

Pierce praised the IWD teams who helped him learn "where I need to go, basically - what should be on the path."

"They really kind of helped me set some goals," he said. "If I have a goal to accomplish, I do fairly well. My problem is finding that goal and what I need to do."

In six months to a year, Pierce said, Microsoft will evaluate him and decide whether to offer him a permanent position. In the meantime, he's continuing to gather valuable work experience.

To get started in your search for a new career, visit www.IowaWORKS.gov.

Visit our NDEAM pageto learn more about October events commemorating National Disability Employment Awareness Month, including a list of educational webinars and in-person events.

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