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Job Coach Position

About the Support You Will Provide

As a Job Coach, you will assist each person on a one-to-one basis, and your job duties will be different for each person.

What you might help one person with another person may already be able to do independently. With some people you might help with completing paperwork, learning the work routine, or communicating with managers. With others, you might help with improving work performance, taking on more responsibilities, or advocating for more hours. (And remember, you will be trained in how to perform these and other Job Coach duties.)

Employment

Each person you will work with has their own strengths, preferences and support needs, and these will change over time. One of the rewards of working as a Job Coach is to witness the accomplishments that people make in their lives and recognize your role in their successes.

Each person has their own strengths, preferences and support needs and these will change over time. One of the rewards of working as a Job Coach is to witness the accomplishments that people make in their lives and recognize your role in their successes.

ON THE JOB COACHING...

Debra works at an electronics retail store in the DVD and video games section. The number one gift of the holiday season is the Wii, a video game console that is becoming harder to find the closer it gets to the holiday.

Jim, the Job Coach, stops by to see Debra during her work hours. There are a lot of customers and she is busy helping people find DVDs and other gifts that they are looking for. Besides Debra, there are a few other customer service clerks and a department manager helping the customers. When Jim gets a chance to talk to Debra, she asks him what she should say if someone asks her about how to get a Wii.

Jim advises Debra to ask her department manager about the appropriate response, and as the department manager is walking by Jim reminds Debra that she has a question for him. The department manager tells her how she should respond, but Debra is not completely confident that she can answer correctly. Jim breaks down the answer into the main points, models the answer for Debra and rehearses it with her.

In sum, the steps Jim takes to help Debra with her question are:

  • Ask the manager: Jim reminds Debra to ask the manager as he is walking by.
  • Identify the main points: Jim listens to the manager’s response and breaks it down for Debra.
  • Model it: Jim plays the role of Debra, showing her how to answer a customer’s question about the Wii.
  • Role rehearsal: Jim plays the role of the customer, and has Debra answer the Wii question herself.

After completing these steps Debra is confident that she can respond to customers when asked this common question.