Fulton County Schools staff, Sandy Springs officials, and students gathered on Monday to announce a partnership between North Springs High’s Work-Based Learning program and the Associated Credit Union.
North Springs was chosen to host Associated Credit Union’s (ACU) Talent Without Transportation apprenticeship program, Brian Patterson, the FCS Work-Based Learning coordinator, said. He said they renovated an unused office space as an ACU Virtual Customer Service branch.
Over the summer, three students underwent extensive training at ACU’s headquarters. Patterson said two students work as virtual customer service representatives and a third student interns in ACU’s Learning and Development department.
“Our goals are twofold,” Patterson said. “We want to give kids that real-world experience that cannot really be simulated inside a traditional classroom.”
Patterson said the second goal was to give the program’s business partners access to top-tier and local talent. He hopes that gives those students a future recruitment advantage.
Approximately 200 students interview each year for 100 opportunities across different career pathways. They get internships that align with their skills or talents, and their vocational passions, Patterson said.
The ACU partnership offers students experience while still attending school. This is accomplished through virtual internships. They get paid internships and real-world experience even without transportation, Patterson said.
ACU Executive Vice President Heiwote Tadesse said the credit union wanted to give future leaders an opportunity to shine and to serve the community.
“Some of our great organizations, like Associated Credit Union, you’ve got to cultivate from when they’re young, teach them financial education, empower them to be able to have some confidence,” Tadesse said.
ACU wants to hire the students as they graduate. Tadesse said at the end of the day the credit union has done its part by preparing them for the future.
Eliza Peddi was one of the three ACU student interns. She said ACU’s Learning and Development department trained her. She learned how to help customers by using its websites and programming.
Zahria Inglis also works as a virtual customer service representative. She helps customers who use ATMs to make fund transfers, payments, deposits or get cash.
Patterson said when customers come to an ATM at a credit union branch, they usually see a teller inside the bank. With this program, they will see one of the students’ faces appear on the ATM screen. The student works remotely from North Springs.
Jayden Austin interns in the ACU Learning and Development department. He said ACU took the student interns, trained them, and indoctrinated them in the ways of ACU. Austin said he was brought to that department and taught the process of how it works to train staff.
