“A Site for Us”

Meet Crystal, a young adult from Texas who found it difficult to find jobs with little to no experience. By joining SkillUp's Social Capital Builder's program, Crystal was able to navigate her IT support role amid the pandemic’s limitations. With SkillUp’s training options, easy-to-use features, and comprehensive job resources, Crystal developed the necessary job skills and confidence for her career dreams.

With SkillUp, I’ve been able to find more opportunities to help me learn new skills for my next job.

Hi, my name is Crystal Okonkwo. I’m from Houston, TX, and I’m doing an IT training program with SkillUp.

As someone who’s young and starting off my technical career, I feel like entry-level jobs are no longer entry. They require two to three, maybe three to five years of experience, and it’s kind of hard for someone who has no experience.

I started a career development program a couple months ago, and they invited the SkillUp team to our work sessions. They stayed with us, showing us all the tabs and how to use it, and made it really accessible for us as first-time users of the site.

My program, Opportunity College, consisted of three individual classes with different instructors. Learning new technical skills helped me develop confidence, and even though I’m still fresh to the industry, I have a leg-up over other people who are new.

I’m still using my resources at Opportunity College to apply to jobs that they post on our job board. I’m opening myself to learning other skills, like coding, which is something that’s very new to me and something I feel like I can be very successful in. I often check SkillUp to find earn-and-learn jobs where they’ll train me and I’m able to earn an income at the same time.

I would recommend SkillUp for new people looking for career paths that are new to them. They have a variety of jobs on their job site, so I recommend it to young people. It’s a site for us.

Find a New Career Path

Thank you for sharing your story, Crystal! Your journey motivates us to keep pushing boundaries and creating opportunities for many more.

Interested in seeking an entry-level job that will pay you as you train? Check out SkillUp’s Earn and Learn jobs and apprenticeships.