Success Story
Burley Young GMC
“It has been a great opportunity to partner with VR, and watch as Anthony and others, learn valuable skills through their work experience. This will help the students excel in the vocation of their choice. It has been exciting to see them learn skills that will benefit them throughout their lives. Thank you, Lyle and VR, for your efforts in providing high school students a path to achieve success.” - Dan Alvey, Service Manager at Burley Young GMC
Story
Lyle Bloxham, a VR Counselor works with businesses in Burley, and the surrounding area, to ensure that students he works with can gain valuable hands-on work experiences prior to graduation. These work experiences ensure that the students can begin to learn the value of a job, money, skills, and the work ethic necessary for their success after high school.
Through Lyle’s work with the school districts and businesses, he has developed a strong and mutually beneficial working relationship with Burley Young GMC.
This working relationship has allowed many students with disabilities from surrounding high schools to obtain valuable paid hands-on work-based learning experiences, which in many cases, has been the student’s first experience with work and earning a paycheck.
“Working with VR and Young Automotive was a better for my training needs because hands on learning is better fit for me, so I’m learning a lot more than I would in a more traditional training program.”- Anthony, IDVR Customer
Through this working relationship over the years, VR has also supported Young GMC to grow their talent pipeline and fill open positions which supports them in reaching their business goals.
When there has been a good fit between a student working with VR and Young GMC, like Anthony, they have hired on the student after the completion of their short-term work experience. The students have continued to gain additional skills and benefits from having permanent employment in their local community.
Young GMC values supporting their community and giving back, while diversifying their talent pipeline, which has allowed them to tap into the relatively untapped talent pool of youth with disabilities in their community to fill open positions and train employees their way.
“Partnering with local employers to develop and provide work-based learning experience opportunities for the students I work with has been shown to be one of the strongest predictors of students’ employment success following their completion of high school. I have seen that students who actively participate in these work experiences develop skills and behaviors that are essential to success in the workplace.” – Lyle Bloxham, VR Counselor