Home Industries Health Services Summer work can boost future workforce

Summer work can boost future workforce

By

Eli Sherman

-

06/02/2017

COLLABORATIVE EFFORT: Heather Hudson, executive director of the Governor’s Workforce Board, talks with Spencer Dickinson, foreground, Prepare RI project director, and Daniel Brown, GWB chief implementation aid, at the R.I. Department of Labor and Training building in Cranston. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

“Future-proof your workforce.” That’s the pitch the state is making to connect more Rhode Island teens and young adults with workforce opportunities in various sectors, including health care. The program started about five years ago and is called Summer Youth Employment Program. Heather Hudson, executive director of the Governor’s Workforce Board, headed this year’s effort

Already a Subscriber? Log in

To Continue Reading This Article

Become a Providence Business News subscriber and get immediate access to all of our premier content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

Critical RI business news and analysis updated daily.
1 year of print (26 issues).
Unlimited access to all subscriber only content on our website, on any device.
Free email alerts.
Annual Book of Lists Print Edition.
All special issues produced during subscription term.

Click Here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article

PBN Branded Content

Let’s Save Big with Rhode Island Energy Efficiency Programs

Nestled alongside the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, RI, in a historic National Heritage Corridor that…

Learn More

LEAVE A REPLY Cancel reply

“Future-proof your workforce.” That’s the pitch the state is making to connect more Rhode Island teens and young adults with workforce opportunities in various sectors, including health care. The program started about five years ago and is called Summer Youth Employment Program. Heather Hudson, executive director of the Governor’s Workforce Board, headed this year’s effort along with the R.I. Department of Labor and Training to allocate more than $1 million toward two workforce-investment boards, which will connect 1,200 teenagers and adults aged 14-24 with 380 participating organizations. The program, she said, is beneficial to both the state’s youth, who can make a little money for themselves or their families, and participating companies, which benefit from the influx of relatively cheap, temporary labor. The teens and adults work in various industries, but Hudson says health care-related fields are especially important in Rhode Island. “The health care industry, give or take, is about 20 percent of the workforce in Rhode Island,” Hudson said. “That means we need to prepare kids to be ready for those jobs.” Hudson, picked by Gov. Gina M. Raimondo to lead the workforce board, emphasizes the importance of getting future members of the workforce ready at an early age. “At the age of 14 or 15, this is probably your first job, so you probably don’t know what it means to show up on time, how to check in with your boss each day, what to say, what not to say,” Hudson said. “This is not only about making sure students are college-ready, but that they will also have professional development and know what it is to have a job.” The sentiment largely echoes the governor’s overall push for workforce-development initiatives throughout her first term. The work readiness, she says, will ultimately help the employers. “The Summer Youth Employment Program provides real-life, hands-on training aligned with the needs of Rhode Island employers,” Raimondo said in a statement. And despite the well-documented layoffs announced at some of the hospitals throughout the state, the overall trend in health care employment signals a need to backfill the existing workforce pipeline. Health care and social-assistance jobs in the state have grown 5.4 percent to 81,283 over the last decade, bucking the overall workforce trend, which has declined 3.9 percent to 453,684, according to U.S. Census Bureau’s quarterly workforce indicators. Many health care organizations, including hospitals, run their own workforce-development programs independent of the state. But the state’s summer work program augments those efforts. [caption id="attachment_159206" align="aligncenter" width="640"]

READY TO WORK: Participants in Lifespan’s 2015 Summer Youth Employment Program go through a training session. Each year, about 25 percent of the youths are hired permanently across the Lifespan health system. / COURTESY LIFESPAN

READY TO WORK: Participants in Lifespan’s 2015 Summer Youth Employment Program go through a training session. Each year, about 25 percent of the youths are hired permanently across the Lifespan health system. / COURTESY LIFESPAN[/caption] Each summer Lifespan hires approximately 80 socially or economically “at-risk” youths, many of whom end up with permanent jobs. State aid helps cover the costs for 30 of the youths. On average 25 percent of the youth are hired permanently across the Lifespan health system. “Lifespan’s consistent financial commitment to this program – as well as the state’s investment – has provided the stability so critically needed in designing and really perfecting a program like this,” said youth-development coordinator Alexis Devine, who has run the program since it started in 2005. State officials report nearly 400 people have worked with various health care companies over the last three years. And more people, it appears, are clamoring to get in. “Over the past several years, demand for summertime jobs has far exceeded supply and or availability,” said Mike Healey, spokesman for the R.I. Department of Labor and Training. Last year nearly 2,300 teens and young adults applied for a total of 781 positions. The demand this year led to Hudson and DLT advocating for additional funding of $300,000, bringing the state’s total investment into the program to $1.8 million. The increase, Hudson said, is slated to translate into roughly 100 more Rhode Islanders getting summer jobs this year. “Students want to take advantage of this … and it’s awesome students out there are getting the value of job readiness early on,” Hudson said. “We’re also developing a deep bench of kids to be prepared for those jobs over the next five years.” The program boasted a 94.2 percent retention rate last year, and 84.8 percent participated an average of 108 hours out of the 120 maximum possible hours. “Early work experiences … are critical to a young person’s development,” said Janet Raymond, board chair of Workforce Solutions of Providence-Cranston. “Participating in well-structured summer employment can provide the skills that employers are looking for.”