Youth Skill Building & Employment Training

YouthWorks is a state-funded youth employment program that helps teens and young adults get the skills and experience needed to find and keep jobs. Participants take part in paid short-term work placements during the summer and/or school year at public, private and nonprofit worksites.

Participants also receive training in core soft skills so they can practice professional behaviors and learn how to relate to supervisors and co-workers at their worksites. And they learn how to take the next steps in their education and career pathways. All YouthWorks programs use the Signal Success curriculum to help young people learn and practice the skills that matter at work, at school, and in life.

Over the past five years, more than 26,000 teens and young adults from low-income communities in 31 cities have taken part in YouthWorks; in the summer of 2016, over 4,400 young people had summer employment through the program.

• YouthWorks 2017 Databook

  The YouthWorks 2017 Databook details the YouthWorks 2017 Job Program. This year 4,014 youth in over 31 cities across the Commonwealth successfully completed summer job opportunities. It is submitted to General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by Commonwealth Corporation on behalf of the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
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• FAQ for Employers

  Click to read frequently asked questions by employers.
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• Signaling Success: Boosting Teen Employment Prospects

  This study examines the historically low teen employment rates and identifies employer perceptions of teens in the workplace. Signaling Success: Boosting Teen Employment Prospects was released at a Workforce Development in Practice series event on April 2, 2013 in Worcester.
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• Strategic Employer Engagement: Building Dynamic Relationships with Employers in Teen and Young Adult Employment Programs

  This guidebook for workforce practitioners offers resources to aid teen/young adult-focused professionals in planning and executing successful employer engagement activities and related youth employment programming. Tools are arranged in accordance with a five-step process and include instructions for developing an employer engagement marketing campaign.
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• Understanding & Addressing the Youth Employment Crisis

  In 2013 Commonwealth Corporation examined the historically low teen employment rates and surveyed employers to identify their perceptions of teens in the workplace. This two-page brief outlines some of the findings from that study and offers ways employers, education institutions, and workforce organizations can better prepare young people for work.
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