Greatest Works

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:4)

2018 has started as a season of new beginnings. We are eight years into the Latrobe journey, recognizing a genesis of new starts and revised focus. While we continue our efforts in career readiness and commercial readiness, an area of need that I never imagined addressing and humbly serving is with youth workforce development. Here’s the backstory:

I got my first job in high school because I enrolled in Distributive Education Clubs of America, commonly known as DECA (https://www.deca.org/). Back then, a major component of the course and benefit to students was that we were required to obtain work experience. In exchange for high school credit hours, students were expected to have gainful employment in our local community, working 15-20 hours per week. My personal motivation was two-fold: 1) I wanted to work to get out of the school day early. 2) I needed to work to earn my own money toward the purchase my first car.

Fast forward thirty years: Latrobe have been contracted to assist our local school district with career navigation and career readiness implementation. The high school subscribes to Jobs for America’s Graduates, JAG (http://www.jag.org/) as an evidence based workforce development model as a preventive measure against dropping out for at-risk youths. Thirty seven core work competencies are grouped into six outcome clusters (http://old.jag.org/model_competencies.htm): 

• Career Development Competencies (6) 
• Job Attainment Competencies (7) 
• Job Survival Competencies (7) 
• Basic Skills Competencies (5) 
• Leadership and Self-Development Competencies (5) 
• Personal Skills Competencies (7)

In the middle, I am curious as to how an entire generation of children missed out on the importance of the high school work experience as an element self-sufficiency and growth. I say that because as 2018 began, I got a call from one of my former high school teachers asking for a personal favor in coaching her granddaughter, a recent college graduate, who has little work evidence on her resume to support the return-on-investment from her education to sustain her salary expectations. The grandmother remarked that these children graduate from high school with fewer life skills than we (our generation) learned in high school (how to obtain, survive, maintain, and develop, and thrive while working).

Instead of blaming the children, I challenge economic development (education, business, and entrepreneurial communities). How are children expected to develop the basic work skills if not invested in and required to obtain said skills as youth? The capstone of the semester long project with the school district is a community sponsored summer jobs program with a purposed intent to match the needs of the business community with the desire of students to earn valuable work experience by

• Promoting entry level jobs for up to 100 students who participate in career readiness
• Marketing job opportunities for local business owners who want to support workforce development
• Providing a potential pipeline of students and job opportunities for the JAG program

Stay tuned and follow the journey of summer youth workforce development in our community. Education, economics, and workforce development all go hand-in-hand (Marilyn Smith, SETX Workforce Solutions). If you have suggestions about what has worked in your experience, feel free to comment, or drop us a line at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. 

Favor for Good Works

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;

and establish for us the work of our hands…

(Psalm 90:17)

 

It’s the first full week of summer vacation and several young people that I know are still looking for work. It is no coincidence that in the same week I found one of my old check stubs from my first job from high school that I also attended a meeting on workforce readiness in today’s economy. It was like déjà vu, reliving a moment in my Career Orientation class, hearing employers repeat the same message conveyed by my middle school teacher over thirty years ago, that the basic requirements to landing a job are simple: proper attire, appropriate conversation, and a positive attitude. If it is that simple, why are young job seekers having a hard time finding work? What do they need to do to find favor with hiring managers?
 

I grew up in a small community, so there were a limited number of jobs that teenagers typically preferred, like in retail or in an office. Most of my friends either worked in grocery stores, or as I did, in local dairy bars and restaurants. Many of us who worked in high school took classes like D.E.C.A. (Distributive Education Clubs of America) and C.C.E. (Cooperative Career Education) that allowed us to earn classroom credits while gaining real-world work experience. Without knowing, we found favor with local small business owners who took a chance on us, giving us our initial opportunity to do good works.

Favor is access to open doors beyond our natural reach. Two people can come from the same environment and have same opportunities, yet experience different levels of favor. I know from experience that favor ain’t fair, it reigns on the just as well as the unjust. I guess that is why it is called favor, a supernatural preference that allows you to experience unmerited blessings and grace to do good works. My constant prayer is that God grants me favor to be a blessing to someone in need.

So today, my targeted audience is young people who are looking for work and cannot seem to find opportunities via traditional job searches. Perhaps this is a season of access to favor to open doors by starting a small business. Ever consider the supernatural favor to become a

·        Personal assistant tasked with answering the telephones, scheduling meetings, running errands
·        Social media specialist responsible for updating Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram accounts of other busy people or business owners
·        Mobile carwash attendant who travels to potential clients homes or business to provide services
·        Virtual tutor, helping younger students advance reading, math, and/or science skills
·        Mover/packer, assisting those in need with getting rid of clutter or prepare for a move

These are just a few suggestions for a young job seekers looking for economic diversity through entrepreneurial actions. Faith without works is dead, so I recommend getting started sooner than later. And remember those basic requirements mentioned in the first paragraph? That is a start, but do not forget some other P’s: professional, punctual, and persistent. How will you find favor to get hired?
 

Are you a hiring manager or interested in providing a young person with an initial opportunity to do good works? Let us know by commenting or sending me an email at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.