Career moves: Young Irish adults find job training in Butte

Thomas Keenan’s hoping his third visit to America will be the charm for his career.

As a child he came to “ the States” with Project Children, an organization that brings Catholic and Protestant chil dren from Ireland together in American. Later, he vacationed in Boston, Mass.

By Barbara LaBoe of The Montana Standard

But it’s his third trip — to Butte — that Keenan says could have the most impact on his life.

Keenan, 22, is one of 20 Irish young adults spending two months in Butte as part of the Wider Horizons run by ADL Horizons Ltd., and paid for by the International Fund for Ireland. The young men and women are a mix of Catholics and Protestants from the northern and southern parts of Ireland.

The participants live with host fami lies, work in local businesses and take group excursions to places like Yellowstone National Park and American football games — all in the hopes of giv ing them a better understanding of their Irish neighbors. They arrived in October and leave in early December.

“ You see things in a different per spective and you have a chance to meet people who are not far away but you wouldn’t have ever met,” Keenan said of the interactions. “ You don’t look at peo ple and judge them at the start anymore.”

But their biggest benefit, the partici pants say, is the practical American job skills they will take back to Ireland.

“ We’re being trained in job skills and in applying for jobs,” Keenan said recently while on break from work at Granite Mountain Bank. “ And the expe rience of working in America, which is a couple steps ahead from back home, will really help.”

“ It’s really a chance to be better qualified (for potential jobs),” added 18-yearold John Brogan who works with Keenan at the bank. For example, Ireland doesn’t yet have drive-through ATMs, Brogan said, so he and Keenan will have a leg-up when they arrive.

Without the training and experience, Keenan and Brogan said, they’d both probably be taking college courses and working part-time. Now they hope to find full-time employment in banking or some other financial field. Especially since Americans are more focused and serious about their work and careers.

“ We can put this on our CV (resume) and it should be a big help,” Keenan said. “ There’s a high regard back home for people trained in America.”

While technically separate from the similar Project Children and Building Bridges programs, many of the same organizers are involved in Wider Horizons. And the Butte trip is hosted by Gerry Sullivan of Granite Mountain Bank, who has worked with the other programs for years.

“ Butte had been so receptive to the other programs,” Sullivan said. “ And this gives us an opportunity to bring some of the Irish culture to Butte and to in some way influence events in Northern Ireland. They get to experience a very diverse culture with many different religious persuasions and see that we all get along.”

There’s been a fair bit culture shock for the visitors — putting up Christmas decorations in November was quite a change — but participants said they’ve enjoyed their stay in Butte.

“ I’d spoken to Gerry, but I had no idea the town would be so Irish or so friendly,” said Nicola Casey, one of the two supervisors accompanying the participants. “ It’s just been brilliant.”

“ People really want to get to know you just because you’re from Ireland,” added Brogan.

The work each young man and woman has done in Butte varies, but all involve financial and/or business training at more than 10 local businesses. Keenan and Brogan each worked in the bank’s various departments, but their big assignment was drawing up the bank’s 2003 budget. Sullivan will review the document before presenting it to his board of directors, but said he plans to use it as the official financial plan for the company.

“ I certainly intend to use the work they do on it,” he said. “ They’re here to be trained and there’s no sense in having them do unreal work.”

— Reporter Barbara LaBoe may be reached via e-mail at barbara.laboe(at)(at)mtstandard.com.

http://www.mtstandard.com/newslocal/lnews1.html