American Youth are Struggling to Get the Work Experience They Need for Jobs of the Future

Youth employment is a critical element of success for young people. As a pathway to careers and education, meaningful summer employment not only helps young people develop workforce and leadership skills to get and keep good jobs, but also connects them to long term economic opportunity.

Unfortunately, the recession has had a particularly hard impact on youth employment. Only 45 percent of youth between the ages of 16-24 were employed the end of August, including only 33.8 percent of African American youth. This is significantly lower than the 54.5 percent of youth who were employed five years ago and 56.1 percent of youth who were employed 10 years ago. Only 21 out of every 100 teens in low-income families had a job this past summer.

In 2009 and 2010, Recovery Act funding supported over 367,000 summer and year-round job opportunities for low-income youth. This past summer, the Department of Labor set a goal of obtaining 100,000 summer job commitments from the private sector - and nearly reached that goal with 84,000 jobs despite a lack of funding.

Summer employment helps introduce youth to the working world and provides the skills and experiences they need to launch their careers. According to a Department of Labor report, nearly 75 percent of low-income youth who participated in the 2009 federal summer jobs program reported increased work readiness skills. Additionally, young people reported that, in the absence of their summer jobs, they would be competing with more experienced adult workers for jobs or doing nothing productive over their summer breaks.

The Private Sector Can Help

We believe every US company can play a part in creating pathways to employment for low-income and disconnected youth. In January 2012, the President will challenge businesses to commit to connecting low-income youth to summer employment. Recognizing that in a difficult economy not every business is in a position to hire, the Administration's new Summer Jobs Plus program will recognize and support not only businesses that hire youth, but also those companies that provide additional pathways for youth. Summer Jobs Plus identifies three key ways for companies to help connect youth to a better future while simultaneously deriving benefits for their businesses, such as increased employee engagement, customer loyalty and employee retention.

Businesses can accept the President's challenge and make a "Pathways Pledge" by choosing at least one of the following three pathways to employment for low-income youth:

• Life Skills: Provide youth work-related soft skills, such as communication, time management and teamwork, through coursework and/or experience. For example, your company could offer resume writing or interview workshops or provide employee mentors.
• Work Skills: Provide youth insight into the world of work to prepare
  for employment. For example, businesses can host job shadow days.
• Learn and Earn: Provide youth on-the-job skills in a learning environment while earning wages for their work. For example, businesses can offer paid internships, and/or offer permanent positions that provide on-the-job training. Business can also partner with schools and higher education institutions to give youth the opportunity both to strengthen their academic skills while working as well as to connect learning to the context of work.

Tools for Employer Success

To support companies that make pledges to Summer Jobs Plus, the Corporation for National and Community Service will make available a Youth Employment Partnerships toolkit. The toolkit will provide information on how businesses can create clear, community-supported, mutually beneficial pathways to employment for low-income and disconnected youth. Complete with case studies of best practices, the toolkit will guide businesses down one of the three pathways that best matches the company's assets and readiness to provide youth the skills they need for employment and adulthood.

Conveniently available in print and online, the toolkit will walk businesses through four key stages to identify and define a successful program.

• Assess and Select: Employers take an assessment survey which guides them to select one of three engagement models (Life Skills, Work Skills or Learn & Earn).
• Define Scope: Employers walk through an exercise to define the scope of their company's model.
• Plan and Pilot: Users are guided through a plan to build their company's pilot program.
• Refine and Grow: Employers set up for ongoing program development and refinement.

Additionally, employers who commit to support youth employment in one of the three pathways will register their commitments with the Summer Jobs Plus Bank, an easy-to-use tool that helps low-income youth and communities find job postings from companies looking to hire them. To help ensure youth can find these Summer Jobs Plus opportunities, the Administration will engage public and private sector resources to train employers and providers on how to "tag" listings for jobs as well as corporate mentorship opportunities and other "Pathway Pledges."

Making a Pathways Pledge

Companies who join the Summer Jobs Plus challenge will commit to the following:

• Create new or expanded opportunities for a specific number of low-income youth ages 16-24. Each commitment will provide a specific number of young people they plan to engage in Summer 2012.
• Hire youth, or to support youth via one of the three pathways to employment: Life Skills, Work Skills, or Learn and Earn
• Participate in the Summer Jobs Plus Bank, including tagging listings for jobs, corporate mentoring experiences and other "Pathways Pledges."
  
  Summer Jobs Plus Commitment Tracker Sheet...