Pathways Home, Career Consultant (Hybrid)

The Career Consultant will support the Pathways Home initiative and ensure the successful delivery of services. This initiative expands access to financial education, job-readiness preparation, increases the number of occupational skills training courses available during incarceration, and provides dedicated staff who specialize in workforce development to help participants navigate their training and career goals.

The Career Consultant will have direct contact and engagement with participants. This role requires a tailored approach of engagement, ensuring participants receive individualized services that align with program roles. The Career Consultant will utilize expertise in workforce development and/or judicial systems to deliver impactful outcomes in a performance-driven environment.

Position Details:

The Career Consultant reports to the Manager and works closely with others in the Career Services, Talent Acquisition, and Education, Training, and Assessment Departments. This position is exempt. The salary range is $58,000 – 61,250 annually. Salary commensurate with experience. Benefits include health, life, and dental insurance, internet allowance, paid time off, and 401(k), profit sharing. This position is Full-time, Grant-Funded (Contingent on grant renewal).

Essential Responsibilities:

• Build community awareness of reentry issues by championing efforts to create better outcomes
• Works directly with the Department of Corrections and local service providers to plan reintegration from incarceration into the community.
• Attend workforce-related workshops within the county correction facilities to promote job readiness activities and completion of re-entry programs.
• Engage participants through individualized career counseling, coaching, and employment planning.
• Provide case management services to participants in individual and group sessions.
• Deliver workforce services designed to support participants in achieving employment and self-sufficiency.
• Maintain accurate records, track participant progress, and meet program performance metrics.
• Collaborate with judicial partners, employers, and workforce agencies to coordinate resources.
• Provide referrals to supportive services as needed to address barriers to employment.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human/Social Services, Human Resources, Criminal Justice, Public Administration, or a related field; or 3–5 years of workforce development or judicial system experience.
• 2 years of experience successfully delivering services to returning citizens in a performance-based environment.
• Strong communication, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills.
• Knowledge of judicial and/or workforce systems.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Knowledge of labor market information and workforce development trends
• Experience with grant compliance and reporting.
• Proficiency in data management and performance tracking systems.
• A working knowledge of the County government’s existing reentry programs and services.
• Knowledge specific to judicial/correctional system, nonprofit and faith-based reentry resources, and educational services within the County.

Expectations of EPG Consultants:

• Provide exceptional internal and external customer service. Exercise “situational awareness,” keep current with client and market needs, and articulate how EPG can help address them.
• Work closely with internal and/or external customers, individually and/or in groups, to identify specific challenges, determine courses of action, and assist clients in taking the necessary actions.
• Conduct internal and/or external outreach to provide information to current and prospective clients, recruit prospects, coordinate interactions, etc. for assigned programs.
• Identify problems (e.g., commonly experienced process issues, client challenges) and opportunities, and recommend changes to supervisors to effectively resolve them.
• Respond, in a timely and accurate fashion, to supervisor and/or management team requests for information, e.g., collecting and assembling data, and participating in drafting reports.
• Handle multiple operational and/or administrative responsibilities simultaneously, independently and with attention to detail, ensuring timely completion to established standards.
• Employ excellent professional judgment in independent decisions and actions as well as other activities, following SOPs and escalating issues appropriately.

Core Competencies:

• Domain Knowledge—Broad understanding of the workforce development field, its associated regulations, etc., with thorough knowledge of assigned programs and customer needs.
• Strategic Thinking—Ability to see the strategic aims of assigned programs, and recommend tactical changes to processes, procedures, etc. to support strategies.
• Problem Solving—Ability to critically evaluate needs and/or problems, envision solutions, and identify, analyze, and choose from among alternative courses of action.
• Innovation and Risk Taking—Ability and willingness to think creatively within current programs and practices to improve them and advance EPG’s mission, and to promote and defend new ideas.
• Project Management—Understanding of project tasks, schedules, and resources, and ability to track progress, identify and escalate issues and risks, etc.
• Relationship Building—Ability to develop and maintain positive and productive relationships that facilitate advancement of assigned program goals.
• Collaboration—Willingness and ability to adopt a “one team” culture, working together with others within EPG to solve problems, pursue opportunities, etc.
• Communications—Ability to communicate effectively in oral and written form to inform others of programs, challenges, etc., in ways appropriate for the audience(s).
• Customer Empathy—Understanding of clients’ circumstances, challenges, and needs, and ability to appropriately respond in assessing operations and serving customers.
• Independence—Willingness and ability to work with minimal direction and oversight, recognize and address problems, and employ good judgment on involving others or escalating concerns.
• Professional Judgment—Ability to weigh the benefits, implications, and risks of multiple options, and make decisions that reflect the best interests of EPG and its clients.

About Employ Prince George's, Inc.

We are the bridge between job seekers looking to begin or change careers and businesses looking for skilled workers to maintain competitiveness in a changing labor market. Our mission is to contribute to the economic vitality of Prince George’s County by providing a demand-driven system that delivers qualified workers to businesses and provides job seekers with opportunities for careers in high-demand/high-growth industries.

We Value:

• Commitment to excellence
• Responsiveness to customer needs
• Integrity
• Mutual respect
• Innovation/Creativity

About EPG's Career Services Team

The Career Services team is characterized by the high quality of employment and training services they provide to Prince George’s County residents who are seeking employment. Our team is part of the American Job Center Community Network and facilitates career development and the meaningful employment of our customers through career assessment, coaching, training, job clubs and case management services. These services prepare our customers to obtain and retain in-demand jobs at a competitive rate of pay. Led by the Director of Career Services the team consists of Managers, Coordinators, Career Consultants and Program Assistants. The Career Services team works symbiotically with the Business Services and Education and Training Departments to prepare and place persons in employment.