Hey everyone! My name is Tim, and I am working for the City of Durham at the Office of Economic and Workforce Development with Cord, Katie, Taylor, and Brian. While there is a lot that goes on in the office, our main project is helping with the Durham YouthWork Internship Program, a program that matches local teenagers with jobs and internships at offices and businesses throughout Durham.
For the first few weeks, we did a lot of paperwork to get the kids onto the city payroll and made a plethora of phone calls to the kids and the business partners. This week was the official start of the program – pre-employment training. The training took place at three different highs schools in Durham. There, the kids attended workshops to learn financial literacy, professional communication, interview skills, and resume writing techniques. Katie and I spent the week at Southern High School checking the kids in and floating around where needed. Today was the last day of training. The kids went to city hall to complete the final steps in the process in order to get paid and start working. One aspect of their training for the day included a diversity seminar. The seminar showed the kids, and us OEWD Dukies, how diverse Durham truly was in all aspects. One thing that stood out during the seminar was Durham’s unemployment rate; Durham’s unemployment is currently at around 8% while the NC average is 4-5%. This program is one way the city is taking action to reduce this figure. The end goal is to give young people the tools and experience they need to enter the workforce and become full contributors to the society and the economy, which I believe is paramount in the continuing development of Durham’s economy.
The whole summer, we have gotten glimpses of who the kids are from their profiles, but this week, we were finally able to interact with them and get to see their personalities shine. After this week, I have gotten to know about half of the kids in the program pretty well and am eager to get to know the other half. I looking forward to solidifying these relationships as the kids began their work in the program!
For the first few weeks, we did a lot of paperwork to get the kids onto the city payroll and made a plethora of phone calls to the kids and the business partners. This week was the official start of the program – pre-employment training. The training took place at three different highs schools in Durham. There, the kids attended workshops to learn financial literacy, professional communication, interview skills, and resume writing techniques. Katie and I spent the week at Southern High School checking the kids in and floating around where needed. Today was the last day of training. The kids went to city hall to complete the final steps in the process in order to get paid and start working. One aspect of their training for the day included a diversity seminar. The seminar showed the kids, and us OEWD Dukies, how diverse Durham truly was in all aspects. One thing that stood out during the seminar was Durham’s unemployment rate; Durham’s unemployment is currently at around 8% while the NC average is 4-5%. This program is one way the city is taking action to reduce this figure. The end goal is to give young people the tools and experience they need to enter the workforce and become full contributors to the society and the economy, which I believe is paramount in the continuing development of Durham’s economy.
The whole summer, we have gotten glimpses of who the kids are from their profiles, but this week, we were finally able to interact with them and get to see their personalities shine. After this week, I have gotten to know about half of the kids in the program pretty well and am eager to get to know the other half. I looking forward to solidifying these relationships as the kids began their work in the program!