For over a month now, Southern High School senior Isaac Browning has been participating in the Maryland Apprenticeship Program with First United Bank & Trust.
Browning serves the retail branch of First United as a customer service representative intern.
“He is helping clients with day-to-day banking, making deposits and withdrawals, answering questions they may have, assisting them with teaching them different technology that we have here at the bank,” said Jason VanSickle, VP and managing director of Financial Solutions.
Along with his remaining school classes, Browning is receiving an education through a training program aimed to teach apprentices about the technology used in the industry, as well as rules and regulations.
“That training is pretty in depth; they will actually go through several series,” explained VanSickle. “In addition to that, we provide regular feedback, so they will meet with a manager of the Oakland office.”
VanSickle said there is also additional training when needed, as well as Individual Development Plans.
“We see what they may need in order to advance their career while they are doing their apprenticeship program. If they, for example, don’t necessarily want to do retail maybe they say, ‘I’d really like to look at deposit services,’ we would mentor them and get them with the right person so they can do some job shadowing,” said VanSickle.
Browning is the third intern that has been in the office.
“On a regular basis, we can have anywhere from 8 to 10 interns given the semester or during the summer,” said VanSickle.
According to Program Coordinator Brandon Butler, the program requires 450 hours of training and instruction, and employers must be local to the area of the school.
“This is a great program to have kids earn while they learn,” Garrett County Commissioner Paul Edwards said. “It’s another avenue for students to meet their graduation requirements while jumpstarting their career and getting local businesses the employees they all desperately need. “It’s really a great program all the way around.”
Other employers participating in Garrett County include Byco Enterprises, Garrett County Public Schools, Beitzel Corporation, Service Master of Garrett County, Garrett Container Systems, and Rush Services.
Article courtesy of The Garrett County Republican. Staff Writer Claire Sullivan can be reached at 301-334-3963 or by email at [email protected].
