Students in the Workforce & Technology Center's (WTC) Environmental Services program recently put their new skills in floor care to the test in a real world setting as they removed a five-year accumulation of old wax and polish in the State Center Café, located in the State Office Building on Preston Street in Baltimore. This on-the-job experience came about because of a new partnership between the State of Maryland's Department of General Services and the Maryland Business Enterprise Program for the Blind (MBEPB).
WTC students Orlando Beckett, Dominic Anderson and Sylvester Peterkin were given the task by the café's management to strip the floors, clean them and re-wax them.
Supervised by WTC Environmental Services instructor Marcia Neal, the three men completed the job over two mornings, between the breakfast and lunch rushes at the busy café.
According to WTC Career & Technology Training Services Supervisor Jim Evans, this partnership illustrates WTC's increased focus on creating opportunities for students in the various career training programs to gain valuable work experience in real world settings before they graduate from WTC.