Johnny Perez never imagined that he’d work for a bank.
Now he’s an assistant vice president at Citizens Financial Group Inc. in Providence.
Eight years ago, Perez was juggling multiple part-time jobs.
“And all of them started with a ‘U,’ ” Perez quipped. “I was a customer service rep at U-Haul, a package handler at UPS, and a driver for Uber.”
Everything changed when he joined Year Up Inc.
A career development program with a campus in Providence, Year Up has elevated hundreds of young adults without college degrees. Through a yearlong program that includes an internship, intense one-on-one mentoring, and soft and hard skills training, Year Up has put them on a fast track to the middle class.
Fortune 500 corporations fund the program. They benefit, too.
Since 2005, Year Up has provided an uninterrupted pipeline of diverse and qualified workers for national enterprises large and small.
In Rhode Island, those companies not only include Citizens. Many of the Ocean State’s largest employers recruit directly from the Year Up program: among them Amica Mutual Insurance Co., CVS Health Corp., Fidelity Investments Inc., Lifespan Corp. and The Washington Trust Co.
Perez joined Year Up in 2015.
“It was a no-brainer,” he said. “Through the program I could get school credit, real work experience and paid a decent stipend.”
Year Up operates on 25 campuses nationwide. In Providence, the curriculum focuses on customer service, business operations and information technology. Perez already had some computer skills. He was surprised when the program assigned him to the customer service track.
“I always had a big interest in IT. I thought that’s where the money was, and the excellent jobs would be,” Perez said. “But business operations turned out to be the best fit. There were more hybrid opportunities available to me.”
The first half of his training focused on soft skills: making a solid first impression, keeping a schedule, developing a reputation for responsibility, networking, dressing for success and expressing confidence through a firm handshake.
The next six months, he was a project analyst at Citizens. “It wasn’t something I had on my radar. But coming in, I got the feel and the energy of the people, the sense of collaboration. I felt at home,” he said.
He learned the fundamentals of the financial industry from the ground up. “It’s not just numbers,” he said. “It’s so much more than that. It’s IT, support and operations, too.”
Perez graduated from the program in 2016. Citizens immediately offered him a job. He quickly rose to manage an array of projects.
In July 2021, Citizens named Perez an assistant vice president. As one of his duties, he onboards all of the bank’s Year Up interns. Unofficially, he calls himself an evangelist for the program. “I preach Year Up in my sleep,” he said.
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BUILDING PATHWAYS: Keith Kelly, president of Citizens Bank Rhode Island, said the bank is committed to “finding new ways to build talent pipelines that bring in candidates with diverse perspectives and innovative skill sets.”
PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
Keith Kelly, president of Citizens Bank’s Rhode Island division, said the collaboration with Year Up has generated scores of success stories.
“It’s been a real win for us,” Kelly said. “We’ve had more than 315 interns come through since the partnership began in 2005. We can see how candidates work in a collaborative way and get a sense of what they can do and want to do. When they are hired, they hit the ground running.”
Some candidates decide the financial industry is not for them. But 233 of the 315 Citizens interns have become full-time Citizens employees, Kelly said.
In 2022, Citizens was the employer partner to host the most Year Up interns in Rhode Island and was in the top 15 partners to host Year Up interns nationally, said Eric Donovan, a bank spokesman.
Nationwide, the average starting salary for Year Up grads is $52,000. More than 40,000 students have gone through one of Year Up’s 25 training campuses.
John Galante is Year Up’s managing director for financial services.
Corporations provide 60% of the program’s funding. The money helps pay for training, wraparound social services and the stipends. About 40% of Year Up’s budget comes from philanthropic foundations and individuals.
“The end objective is for each to earn a job,” Galante said. “We’ve got about 70% success rate where, at the end of the internship, the companies convert the intern to the employee.”
Year Up recruits young adults from community organizations – from housing authorities to churches, from schools to Boys & Girls clubs.
“Our only criteria is that they be 18-26 years old with a GRE [Graduate Record Examination] or high school diploma,” Galante said. “Typically, they are low- to no-income. Some may have been in community college. When they first come to us, they’re usually working at least two retail jobs.”
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PAYING IT FORWARD: Stephanie Cuevas, social media community manager at Citizens Bank, was connected to the bank through the Year Up Inc. career development program and now mentors students in the program.
PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
When Stephanie Cuevas first learned about Year Up, she was working part-time jobs in food service and retail.
It sounded too good to be true.
“I saw my friend at the mall, and he was wearing a suit and tie. He told me ‘I go to school, I get credits, I get an internship, and they pay me,’ ” Cuevas said. “I was sure he was getting scammed. It sounded like a pyramid scheme.”
With research, she felt the door to her future swing open.
“Before then, I didn’t know what I could do. What I knew was that my mom worked early shifts at factories,” Cuevas said. “I had been told I could be a teacher, a lawyer, a judge, or an astronaut. None of those paths seemed likely. I never knew about life inside a corporation.”
Following an internship at Amica, Cuevas worked for Year Up at its administrative offices in Philadelphia managing alumni events. She returned to Providence after discovering a job running social media for Citizens on the Year Up alumni news board.
She also mentors Year Up students.
“I’m so happy to see someone who comes from where I came from succeed,” Cuevas said.
Competition in the banking industry “for skilled talent is tougher than ever,” according to Kelly. “Like many Rhode Island companies, we’re having to think creatively about how to be more inclusive and bring people into the labor force while giving them the right skills to be successful.”
Citizens, he said, is committed to “finding new ways to build talent pipelines that bring in candidates with diverse perspectives and innovative skill sets. Our partnership with Year Up has been instrumental in helping us build pathways for employment.”
