Summer learning an entree to workforce

SUMMER JOB: Kerly Rivera- Rodriguez, 7, is tutored by 15-year-old Isabella Nieto, while summer program supervisor Barbara Hazel looks on. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
SUMMER JOB: Kerly Rivera- Rodriguez, 7, is tutored by 15-year-old Isabella Nieto, while summer program supervisor Barbara Hazel looks on. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

The 2015 Summer Youth Work Experience Program has 1,040 workers ranging in age from 14 to 24, many of whom would have had few other options to earn wages this summer.

The long-running program has been in place since the 1990s and is funded with $1.5 million from the Governor’s Workforce Board Job Development Fund. It provides work experiences for youth who “increasingly do not have access to work experiences in the summer,” said GWB Director Rick Brooks. And it benefits employers, too, who often consider hiring youth as workers permanently.

Fred Clifford, director of facilities, contracts and procurement for the Wyatt Training Center, which trains correctional officers in Central Falls, said he is supervising 14 youths referred to him by SER Jobs for Progress of Pawtucket. This summer, SER is providing workers to about 30 employers, said Deputy Director Carlos Pedro.

Clifford has hired three of the youths over the past several years after they worked for him in such positions as clerical, information technology, and maintenance. One even became a locksmith and got further training at Wyatt after joining the company, he said.

- Advertisement -

“It helps us out, just having them around,” Clifford said. “When you see these young adults come in, they’ve got smiles on their faces. It encourages our staff and the young adults. And it’s a good steppingstone for these young adults. It’s a great achievement not only for myself but for the corporation. It’s just a very uplifting experience.”

Statewide, the program got underway in early July and runs for six weeks, Brooks said. There’s typically a mix of classroom training and weekly on-the-job training.

The summer-learning program is organized by Workforce Solutions of Providence/Cranston and the Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island.

Carlos B. Ribeiro, the Workforce Partnership’s youth program manager, said the first week of the six-week program provides 20 hours of work readiness: resume writing, mock interviews, cover letters and thank you letters. Then, every week students come back to class for reinforcement and lectures, while also working for different private and public employers, he said.

“We want them to leave summer employment with at least an idea of the field they want to pursue,” said Ribeiro.

For young people such as Isabella Nieto, 15, of Central Falls, it is a chance to focus on career development.

A sophomore this fall, Nieto tutored as a student assistant for six weeks last year and started again this year on July 14. Her supervisor for grades 1 through 5 in the Central Falls school district, Barbara Halzel, a literacy facilitator, along with a numeracy supervisor, is overseeing Nieto and 20 other young tutors, Halzel said.

For Nieto, whose goal is to get a bachelor’s degree in education and become a preschool teacher, the paid job is an invaluable form of on-the-job training.

“[Last year], I learned to work with [elementary school] kids,” Nieto said. “I built a bond with them. I decided to do it a second year because I really like the job. Kids are my specialty.”

Halzel said the tutors have to come to work on time, dress the part, learn how to speak to adults and work along with adults. They also learn to be better prepared as workers on how to follow instructions, resolve problems and get along with their peers, she said.

At Walgreens in Johnston, store manager David Pastina has hired three youths this summer to clean the store and stock shelves, but over the past six years has hired a total of six youths permanently after working with them in the summer-learning program. He is involved through the Workforce Partnership, he said.

“They’re evaluated every week,” he said. “It gives me input on what type of person they are; what type of worker they are.”

Some employers have their own summer-training programs, and pay their own wages to youth participants, but accept some funding from the GWB program. Lifespan, which manages the Rhode Island, Newport and Miriam hospitals, is one such employer, said Alexis Devine, Lifespan’s director of workforce services.

For instance, of the 79 youths involved this year, Lifespan pays most of their wages (totaling $209,707) except for 10 youths coming through the Workforce Solutions program ($68,380) and five youths involved through the partnership ($21,000), she said. Serving those additional young people extends the hospital system’s ability to train people they will actually consider hiring permanently, she said.

Now in its 11th year, Lifespan’s own summer-learning program, assisted by the state program, usually supports 80 to 95 youths and annually results in about 15 permanent hires, she said.

The “real jobs” youths take on include transporting patients, computer programming or troubleshooting, assisting staff who provide direct care in nursing and cardiac rehabilitation and financial-services data entry, she added.

“They bring a lot to the table,” she said of participants. “They’re incredibly hardworking because they value the opportunity.” •

No posts to display