As a student sat in front of an open cash drawer with hundreds of dollars in play money, guest lecturer Darlene O’Neill spoke patiently.

“If a customer is asking for $5,000, you do not want to hand out all 20s,” she explained.

Another student stepped up to the teller-in-training, and O’Neill spoke again.

“You treat her just like you think you want to be treated,” she said. “That’s what I tell every single teller.”

“I’ve got a question,” said another student in the basement classroom at Jewish Vocational Service of MetroWest headquarters in East Orange. “What happens if several people come in the bank and ask you to take all the money out of your drawer? Then you’ll have nothing left.”

“That will never happen,” O’Neill assured her trainees. “Banks don’t run out of money.”

O’Neill is a branch manager at a Washington Mutual Bank who agreed to share her hands-on experience as a former teller with the seven students in her classroom. The students, all of whom have special physical or emotional needs, have been selected to learn about jobs in the banking business.

The class is sponsored the New Jersey Division of Vocational and Rehabilitation Services, as part of a $290,000 grant from the United States Department of Labor to the JVS, a beneficiary agency of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.

It is partnering with two corporations, Sovereign Bank and Pershing LLC, a securities clearing house in Jersey City, to prepare prospective employees for jobs as office workers and bank tellers.

“The purpose is to train people with disabilities to work in the financial services industry and to do upgrade work and mentoring of existing workers within the bank setting,” said Nancy Fisher, assistant executive director for education and training at the JVS.

“If somebody is already working in a bank, they will work with someone who will mentor them so that they can retain their jobs and learn new skills so they can hopefully get a better job with an increased salary,” she added.

The ultimate intention of the two-year grant is to help place 38 individuals at banks and other institutions after they have been taught in classes small enough “so that each student gets individualized attention,” said JVS executive director Leonard Schneider.

“This program was specifically designed to help the industry overcome a 48 percent turnover rate, which in some cases is higher among tellers,” said Schneider. “Through the development of career ladders in their jobs, students who graduate [from the JVS program] and other employees at a bank will hopefully see they have a future at those institutions.”

Similar program are also under way at Jewish Vocational Service agencies in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“What is particularly special is that it is a collaboration with partners all around the country,” Schneider explained. “It is the first time I know of that anything has been done in connection with training people with disabilities for the financial services industry.”

The class members were chosen by the Division of Vocational and Rehabilitation Services, then screened by the JVS testing unit.

“They have to have a ninth-grade reading level and a seventh-grade math level,” said Nancy Fisher, assistant executive director for education and training at the MetroWest JVS. “Then they are evaluated for computer skills and in different kinds of areas to make sure they are appropriate for this kind of class and job.”

The trainees are in their second of eight weeks of training for work in banks, investment houses, and other financial institutions.

Teacher Rickey Slezak underwent similar instruction at Sovereign Bank, enabling her to pass on to her students skills in job searching, money management, math, and communications.

“A lot of banks look for people with cashier experience, so we are trying to simulate that in the classroom,” she said. “They will still need to go through basic bank teller training when they are hired, but one of the things that makes a good teller is someone who is a knowledgeable bank consumer and knows about all the different services in a bank.”

The students come with a variety of challenges.

“Some of the individuals may have visual disabilities or physical disabilities,” explained Peggy Himsl, assistant director of rehabilitation services at JVS. “Other individuals may have a mild type of learning disability or someone is dealing with some personal stress and hasn’t worked for awhile. But now their disability is under control and they are able to go back to work — just like you or I would.”

“This is a win-win for everyone involved,” said Jackie Ardito, human resources manager at Sovereign Bank. “We’ve added skilled individuals to the workforce, fulfilled our hiring needs, and providing opportunities for these students to advance in their careers.”