Youth employment, workforce, and job readiness programs

View our programs on job readiness and workplace success

Employment for youth in these economic conditions

Employment for youth continues to be a challenging and limited proposition for most teens. Some youth might be tempted to back off on their efforts to find employment due to the state of the economy and the limited number of jobs available. And limited budgets in communities and school districts means that youth employment programs that provide job readiness skills or match teens with employment opportunities are more and more limited, or have been cut entirely. But now is the time for teens to increase their efforts and commitment, to rely on any resources that provide leads for youth employment, and to learn the important skills of networking, follow through, and planning to uncover any employment for youth that may be out there.

Explore youth employment for at-risk teens

As providers of youth employment programs and curriculum, we get exposed to many of the efforts in communities across the U.S. Some cities and neighborhoods, some school districts, and a few government agencies continue to find funding to teach job readiness and to help youth with job search and interviewing skils. Teens' capacity to show willingness and ability to succeed on the job is essential: to make a plan for a job search and work their plan with appropriate and timely follow up, to practice key skills when presenting themselves to hiring managers that offer youth employment, to learn how to function in the workplace, and to demonstrate a wide variety of job readiness skills.

Youth employment through a father's eyes

As a father of four boys, ages 16 to 23, I see first hand the youth employment situation, and in a city where youth employment opportunities are more scarce than most. Surprisingly, two of them have found summer jobs - so far. Their personalities are key to this process. Finding employment for youth, or helping them find jobs, has a lot do with their personalities, their ability to convince hiring managers that can show prior workplace success, and that they come across as employable. And their ability to network, to ask friends about their youth employment leads and successes, and then pursue those job leads quickly, has had much to do with their ability to find work.

Youth employment programs

Efforts to bring youth employment opportunities to the young people include job shadowing opportunities, where teens get to see what happens in the workplace and how a typical workday looks; to develop specific skills for teens to ensure workplace success in the building trades, retail, fast food, or other common youth employment contexts; help teens develop and practice key workplace skills like teamwork, communication, problem solving, customer service, time management, personal hygiene, and conflict resolution; and career development programs to help youth decide which careers are best suited for them, what education is needed to get there, and tools for creating online portfolios, development plans, personality profiles, and collections of personal assets.

However teens are introduced to youth employment, whatever youth employment programs help them develop general or specific skills and motivation, and how they maintain their own focus - all these are essential in today's youth employment settings.