February 11, 2013

It's never too early to think about summer jobs

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Do you remember your first job? Try as I might to forget it, mine is still seared into my memory banks: A shopping mall in suburban Maryland, the sweltering summer of 1985, lifting bags of mulch, restocking tools, assembling picnic tables and counting the hours at Sears' Lawn and Garden department.

At the time, of course, I was a shy, sullen teenager and hated every second of it. Looking back on it more than a quarter-century later, I can see how it taught me valuable lessons about showing up on time, being courteous to customers and the relationship between work and money that I carried with me through college.

Today, kids don't have it quite as easy as I did. Entry-level summer jobs are still a rite of passage, but they're becoming harder to find as more millennials are holding onto these jobs for longer than they had planned. Nowadays, with the national teenage unemployment rate above 23 percent, even high school teens younger than 18 are facing rejection more often unless they have work experience.

Last week, the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County (WDC) offered a hand to these struggling kids with a program called Youth At Work, which aims to create more internship and work-experience opportunities for teens and young adults this summer.

"A first job is the first step toward a life of self-sufficiency and productivity," says WDC CEO Marléna Sessions. "But thousands of youth in King County will not get the chance to work this summer. Work opportunities for young, inexperienced workers have declined dramatically over the last decade."

The program will help participating employers, local governments and community organizations find qualified young job seekers to fill part-time positions or internships over the summer. Last summer, WDC says, companies such as Bank of America and Expeditors International took part by offering summer jobs.

One popular program at Youth At Work is called the SoDo Trades Program, which gives kids the chance to attend classes at South Seattle Community College (SSCC) to prepare them for entering apprenticeships for certain trades. During the first three weeks of the program, the youths can improve their math skills, learn to use a wide variety of new tools, and receive instruction on safety, first aid and developing good work habits.

Then, for the next three to four weeks, students are placed into a paid internship with a private employer to apply the knowledge they just learned. With the help of the Manufacturing Industrial Council, more than 30 employers participated last year by hiring interns, WDC says.

Companies in the program can also offer worksite tours, overviews of their industry sector and "job shadow" opportunities, where teens can observe professionals in their day-to-day jobs to see what types of responsibilities they have.

For more information about signing up, visit YouthAtWork.Info. The site also has a valuable list of youth job resources where teens (and parents of teens) can find the perfect summer job that matches their interests and ambitions.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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entry-level, experience, internships, seasonal hiring, teenagers