Businesses have a resource in local student work programs
IMAGE/FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET
Finding qualified, reliable employees is not always easy. With the minimum wage rising and an increasing number of professionals retiring, some businesses are turning to a new pool of applicants: unemployed youth.
“There are a set of skills that we all seem to look for in the adults we hire,” said Rosalie Lawless, human resources director at Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital and chair of the Central Massachusetts Workforce Investment Board, a public-private partnership that aids skill development and advancement. “I think the best way to learn skills like these is by expanding work firsthand as a youth.”
For many young workers, these “soft skills” are the hardest aspects of landing a job.
“A lot of youth don't have parental guidance on how to dress, arriving early, work ethic — these are all things that are essential for holding a job, but that youth might not learn unless they are employed,” Lawless said.
It's not that students don't want jobs; it's that they can't get them. In recent years, businesses have hired college graduates to do minimum-wage work that has historically been reserved for teenagers with little or no experience. As a result, high school students don't get the kind of real-world work experience they need.
“Yes, you could hire someone with a master's degree. But is someone who is underemployed really going to stay with your company?” Lawless said. “Likely, they'll continue looking elsewhere for a job in the field they trained in. If you hire a student, they are so excited to be there. It can bring in a whole new energy.”
But with the minimum wage rising each year — in Massachusetts, it will cap at $11 an hour in January 2017 — it's becoming increasingly difficult for Bay State businesses to justify hiring younger, inexperienced workers. Combined with new mandatory sick-leave laws, small businesses especially are facing a bigger financial burden.
Effects of rising floor wage
YouthWorks and similar subsidized work programs are also being negatively impacted by the higher minimum wage. YouthWorks is a state-funded program that connects at-risk, low-income youth ages 14 through 21 with local jobs for six weeks during the summer. Some of these businesses are the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance, the city of Worcester and Pernet Family Health.
“The new minimum-wage law has been a sort of Catch-22,” Lawless said. “You want youth to earn as much as they can, but then we're unable to take in as many youth as we wanted to for YouthWorks.”
However, for businesses that are looking for someone a little older and with more experience, there are internship programs that match young people with potential employers. One of these programs is Dynamy.
“For me and a lot of people I knew, high school was so separate from the real world and what we wanted to pursue,” said Fred Kaelin, executive director of Dynamy, a Worcester program that offers both a gap year for post-high-school grads to pursue internships as well as a youth academy for current high school students. “Students now are informed, but not necessarily as savvy about the real world. It is so easy to get to 17 or 18 years old without any of that experience.”
In a 2005 study, sociologist and researcher Jeylan Mortimer found that Americans who held jobs while they were in high school, whether during the summer or the school year, were far more likely to land higher-income jobs as adults.
In the long run, a largely-unemployed youth hurts not only businesses that are looking for qualified professionals but the workforce as a whole. It takes skills to hold a job, but young professionals need entry-level jobs to learn those skills.
“I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do,” said Max Been, a 2013 graduate of Dynamy's internship program. “I was just going to tough it out at college, which I was really worried about. I was glad for the opportunity to try something different.”
Been works with children ages 6 to 12 at Wetzel Residential, a hospital diversion program that works to re-integrate psychiatric patients into their communities rather than into hospitals. He started in 2013 as an intern. Once his internship year ended, he was hired part time. Only a month later, he was promoted to full time, and has been there since.
“A lot of businesses think it's gratifying,” Kaelin said. “They look forward to being a coach or a mentor.”
George Russell, a Worcester city councilor and real estate broker, has been working with interns through Dynamy for more than 15 years.
“The kids I've worked with are good, hard-working kids who need direction,” Russell said. “These are unpaid interns who are interested in a future job in investment or retail property, kids with an interest in marketing, real estate, technology, politics … The reality is that kids gain important experience.”
“I gained a lot of tools from attending Dynamy, but even more important than those skills was gaining the confidence to use them,” Been said. “There is power in knowing what steps to take next.”
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments