When Luisa Jiron de Martinez received an unexpected email from an Allstate apprenticeship recruiter, she worried it was spam. After tirelessly trying to get her foot in the door in accounting and business administrative roles, she had started to feel discouraged and skeptical of the process. Jobs she applied for required experience, but the pathway to gain that experience seemed blocked. “How can I gain that experience if I’m unable to demonstrate what I can do?” She asked. “Without this Allstate experience, the door would not have opened.”
Luisa is one of OMD’s current Allstate apprentices. A part of OMD’s growing suite of work-based learning programs, this program launched in 2021 with 13 apprentices. Today, we support 51. The program is an all-virtual apprenticeship that provides on-the-job skill training and development in human resources, cyber security, marketing & design, IT customer service, finance, data governance, and sales. Because it’s all virtual, Allstate recruits apprentices from across the United States, making this program one of the ways OMD is expanding our national impact.
“Sometimes the first step is the hardest, but it’s always the best one,” Luisa says. “I decided to do this program, and then I took off running. I’ve learned that when I decide I want to try something, I won’t give in.”
For Luisa, it has made all the difference. “I want to be an entrepreneur in the accounting field,” says Luisa. “To me, finishing school and focusing on my career go hand in hand. I want to do it the right way, and this program meets my personal and career goals.” Throughout her time in the program, Luisa sharpened the accounting skills she was learning in her associate degree program and challenged herself professionally, even becoming the leader of Allstate’s Apprenticeship Council.
