- Continuing our series, Making a Difference.

We have a leader making a difference every day.

Michael Andreas is the Chief Executive Officer of JVS, that's Jewish Vocational Services of MetroWest New Jersey.

Good to see you, Michael.

- Thank you, Steve, great to see you today.

- You got it.

JVS of MetroWest as the website is up, does what for whom?

- JVS is a workforce development agency and a human service agency.

We work with about 5,000 people a year in New Jersey.

Primarily the northern part of the state, but also as far down as Middlesex.

We operate out of two different locations, one in East Orange and one in Montclair.

Most of our clients come from overburdened communities, which is a state definition.

And there's three components of that.

You know, individuals who are low income.

Okay, about 85% of the people who we serve are low income individuals making less than $30,000 a year.

75% are below the poverty line.

40% of the people identify as minority.

40% of people have some type of English proficiency issue within, you know, in the household.

GVS has a very robust ESL program and we serve a lot of people in terms of providing ESL classes.

- You also, Michael, work closely with employers, to do what?

To do, design training programs?

- We do a lot of training programs.

We do, the way we wanna work our training programs is the old workforce models tended to be a, you would get a grant, you train people, and then you'd pray that an employer would hire them.

- Right.

- The way we go about, it's a little different.

We start with employers at the beginning of our model, we get input from the employer as to what are the goals and skills that are required for an employer to hire somebody once a training is done.

So what we do is we develop the curriculum, we do the vetting, we do the recruiting, we bring people in, we do the training, and, you know, with the understanding that we already know what the employer's going to need in terms of job skills.

It makes it a lot easier for an employer to hire people once, you know, they already know that the program that we're doing, right, has a lot of the needs that they have to hire.

- Michael, how do folks find JVS of MetroWest, How do they find you?

I mean, they'll put up the website right now, but how would they even know you were there?

- I'll tell you, it's, we have so much demand for our offerings, for our programs, and for all our services.

You know, if we run a new training class, like let's say we run a pharm tech class, it's a 15 to 20 cohort class- - Ho-ho, back up, a pharm tech class, explain that?

- So, workforce development, we run these, we run a couple different job skills programs.

One is pharmacy technicians.

There's two tracks for a pharmacy tech.

You know, they're the people working retail in the retail pharmacy, CVS, Walgreens.

And they're the ones behind the counter, you know, filling the prescriptions, you know, under the supervision of the pharmacist.

So that's one track, the other track is in the hospitals.

Hospitals have a huge need for pharmacy technicians.

We also run home health aid programs.

You know, there's a gigantic need in New Jersey for home health aids.

- So they go on your website, what should they be looking for?

- You know it depends what they want.

You know, we believe in the, a continuum of service for people.

So, you know, people come into JVS, they, you know, they let us know where they are.

They let us know what skills they need.

You know, whether we're doing a, an ESL program, whether we're doing a GE program- - English as a second language.

- Yes.

- Why is that?

- That's correct.

- Why is that so important?

- In state of New Jersey, the immigrant population is huge.

JVS or the state of New Jersey has the fifth largest immigrant population in the country.

- That's right.

- Only behind California, Texas, Florida, New York.

We're the fifth, you know, 29% of the people in New Jersey identify as being foreign born, so there is a huge need for ESL.

What we're finding also with our workforce partners, our employer partners, is ESL is a big thing that is needed.

It's a barrier to employment.

We always talk a lot about barriers to employment.

So barriers to employment could be, you know, legal status.

Could be ESL, could be not having a high school degree, could be transportation issues, could be not having access to technology.

- Could it also be someone's status?

- Legal statuses, definitely one of them.

You know, and that's a big issue right now.

You know, the other thing too is if you're a parent, you know you think about, you know, most of the people we serve, you know, have at least one of those barriers to employment.

If you're a parent, you know, now you have might have a child care issue.

You know, so all these things are what we call "barriers to employment."

And, you know, the staff here at JVS in our programs are designed to help clients, you know, overcome these barriers to employment.

- How'd you get into this?

- My story's a little different.

I worked on Wall Street for many years as a trader and a chief operating officer.

This was not where I thought I would be, I have to admit.

But I will say that, you know, when I got into this, I came in as a finance person, because that was really my background.

And JVS was having some financial issues at the time, some leadership issues.

I came in, I was here for about, you know, a year or so, the CEO left.

They asked me if I'd become the CEO and I did.

It is the greatest job I've ever had.

I mean- - Because?

- Because you're dealing with people one-on-one, you're helping people, you're seeing a future for people.

You know, it's, you know, working on Wall Street's different, you know, you make money working on Wall Street, but this is to really impacting human lives every day.

And, listen, I'm the CEO, I have a great staff, I have a wonderful staff who has a connection to this population of people, and they work really hard to help people.

And I have a great board, you know, board also, you know, we have a wonderful board of trustees who help us do all of this stuff.

- Before I let you go.

Michael, the importance of serving people with disabilities, helping people with disabilities as it relates to their employment opportunities.

Got a minute, go ahead.

- In New Jersey, and what we try to do is our mandate for our program as is our funder, which is the division of vocational rehabilitation is CIE, competitive integrated employment.

- Right.

- So that means to give people skills to get them into the workforce.

There's lots of challenges for employers to hire individuals with disabilities.

We work every day to work with our clients to make sure that they have the skills, you know, that we can, that they can utilize on a job.

Our goal with our employer partners is to make sure we train people so they're adding value to an employer on day-one to hire.

That's our goal.

We really get one shot with employers.

As a nonprofit, you know, we really have to provide a good, well-trained employee, you know, and we provide a lot of, you know, soft skills to make sure that people understand what it's like to work in a, you know, in an environment, you know, in a competitive environment.

So, you know, we do a lot of work with that also.

- Michael Andreas, and by the way, this has been part of our Making a Difference series.

Which you wonder, make a difference in what?

We feature not-for-profit organizations who are making a difference in their communities.

And these not-for-profits run the gamut in terms of who they serve, what they do, what their funding sources are, but we are a not-for-profit media production company.

We feature not-for-profit organizations making a difference, and Michael Andreas is the Chief Executive Officer of JVS of MetroWest New Jersey.

The website has been up to find out more.

Hey, Michael, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you, Steve.

- I'm Steve Abubato, thanks for watching.

See you next time.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Valley Bank.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Atlantic Health System.

PSEG Foundation.

Newark Board of Education.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

NJM Insurance Group.

PSE&G.

And by Johnson & Johnson.

Promotional support provided by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

And by New Jersey Globe.