Opinion: Jobs for youth fuel long-term pay offs for local employers
BY DENNIS IRISH
A new call is being issued to businesses and nonprofits across the city to provide a job opportunity for at least one youth this summer. In doing so, we are not only building bridges to the future in the lives of young people, but fostering our future labor pool.
A December 2006 report by MassINC states that Massachusetts has a "chronic labor supply problem." The same report sites expanding internship and summer job opportunities as a means of not only helping youth gain job readiness skills, but also developing early attachment to the workforce.
Jerry Goguen, founder and CEO of IntraLearn Software in Northborough, is a prime example of how the experience of a summer job can be life-changing, and have a long-term pay off to our local economy.
He was one of the business executives who responded to our call to employers last year to participate in the city-wide summer "1,000 Jobs for Youth" initiative by successfully hiring two youth.
After graduating high school, Goguen watched as his friends left for college, unable to attend immediately himself due to high tuition costs. Like many others, the challenge led him to take a summer job.
His summer job provided not only needed finances but it was through that experience working with computers that he discovered the tool to overcoming "disgraphy" a learning disability that causes difficulty with hand-writing, reading out loud and graphical mathematics. Working with computers, he said, also unlocked his natural talents in computer software and the Internet. As CEO of his own 24-employee firm, Goguen is a strong believer in opening the same doors for aspiring youth.
The Jobs For Youth initiative helps youth to not only find employment, receive a paycheck and learn basic employment and financial skills, but as in Goguen's case, to open doors to the future.
Youth seeking summer jobs and employers interested in providing jobs for youth should contact Bob Morrison at The Worcester Community Action Council at 508-754-1176, ext. 144. To make financial contributions to support jobs for youth, contact Nancy Jackson at the United Way of Central Mass. at 508-757-5631.
Dennis Irish is director of government and community at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester. He is a member of the Worcester Youth Employment Coalition and Co-Chair of Common Pathways' Education Work Group.
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