COVID-19 Economic Response and Recovery
Leverage virtual technology platforms and software to develop industry-specific opportunities
Ways to Help Youth Prepare to Enter the Labor Market
Background:
In light of social distancing and COVID-19 regulations, many summer youth programs were canceled and year-round programs significantly curtailed. These programs, however, are critical for underserved populations, both financially and as a means of providing youth with opportunities to develop skills and exposure to careers.
Youth overall have been gravely impacted by unemployment due to COVID-19, with rates generally higher in 2020 than during and after the Great Recession. Minority youth have experienced the greatest impact from unemployment, and youth generally have been disproportionately represented in job losses in industries such as food service, recreation, and hospitality.
Given the importance of youth employment, both for financial reasons and to ensuring exposure to the world of work, this toolkit highlights two programs that successfully pivoted to a virtual approach. Successful elements of both programs, to varying degrees, include:
Each example, to varying degrees, includes the following essential elements:
Major employers are key.
In both the Charlotte Mayor’s Youth Employment Program (MYEP) and the DTE Energy Summer Youth Internship Program (SYIP) examples, major employers (both large and growing) played major roles in the success of their respective programs. Due to their size, they are able to dedicate the human resources, and in some cases the financial resources, to providing summer employment opportunities for youth.
Commitment to growing talent for industries that are high-demand locally.
The MYEP and SYIP both focus on industries that are growing locally. The SYIP includes a focus on specifically growing the energy talent pipeline to ensure it has an ongoing supply of talent, while the MYEP program is focused on exposing youth to local opportunities in the city’s target industries as a talent development strategy and a workforce retention tool.
Robust partnerships improved program funding and programming.
The MYEP was closely connected to the secondary school system — both for funding and for access to teacher mentors — and the SYIP program had close partnerships with the local public workforce system and a youth-focused non-profit. These partnerships enhanced both programs’ ability to pivot quickly from an in-person to a virtual approach.
Leveraged virtual technology platforms and software to deliver engaging, relevant content.
In both examples, the lead organization procured one or more third parties to provide or develop content to use in their virtual internship program. MYEP’s solution was totally customized, while SYIP’s was more “off the shelf,” but in both cases, the use of a blended approach — engagement in a web-based program plus employer-specific activities — allowed the programs to provide a rich, diverse experience.
Case Study #1
Mayor’s Youth Employment Program (MYEP), Charlotte, NC
Program Overview:
- July 6–August 7
- Mondays–Thursdays from 9:30–2:30
- 315 Participants
- 20 Team Leads
- Teams of 4–5
- $900 Scholarship
The Mayor’s Youth Employment Program has been connecting youth in Charlotte with local employers since 1986 with a focus on leveraging relationships with businesses and the community to provide meaningful, career-oriented internships for youth. While MYEP had traditionally provided in-person experiences, it was clear early in 2020 that in-person internships were not an option for the over 500 students enrolled in the program.
In March, the City of Charlotte’s MYEP team began reimagining what a virtual internship might look like. Through a connection with the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council (CELC), the team contracted with Radius Learning, a company that develops workbased education pathways with the private sector and academic institutions. They immediately began to re-engineer the MYEP’s summer experience and were quickly joined by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) and LinkedIn Learning in the effort to identify and secure funding, human capital resources, and learning assets.
Over a period of weeks, the aforementioned partners, also known as the MYEP Virtual Pathways Team, collaborated with leading employers in the region to develop five virtual pathways:
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Business & Finance
- Technology
- Innovation
- Healthcare
Charlotte employers shared learning and development content and information on their skills profiles, which Radius then incorporated into five week pathway experiences for MYEP participants. Each pathway included 100 hours of skills-based tasks simulating future jobs and was aligned with an overall project related to a real-world challenge in the community. The MYEP Virtual Pathways Team worked to design experiences so youth felt like they had a job, rather than watching someone else do a job, in order to create buy-in and opportunities for growth. They also were intentional about designing work-based learning activities through which participants would experience success and have a sense of contributing towards the greater good.
Virtual pathways consisted of:
- Skills development provided in partnership with Radius Learning and LinkedIn Learning
- Work-based adventures to expose participants to the tasks they will face in future roles
- Coaching sessions with team leads from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
- Industry interactive sessions with representatives from local employers
- Life skills sessions focused on developing confidence and professional habits
The design of each pathway included Radius Learning’s 360° Future Skills Fundamentals framework that focuses on the changing skills needed for the next generation of work. Key skill areas include organizational, socioemotional, rational, technological and entrepreneurial. The pathways and the platform were built by Radius Learning in about 90 days
Key Partnerships:
- City of Charlotte Youth Programs administers the program and is one of the funders.
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) CTE provided Perkins funding for 20 Career and Technical Education teachers to mentor youth through the process.
- The curriculum was developed and provided by Radius Learning and LinkedIn Learning.
- Radius Learning built the platform.
- Industry partners included Bank of America, Atrium Healthcare, Siemens, Accenture, Sealed Air, Rare Roots Hospitality, Red Ventures, Balfour Beatty Construction, Corsan, LS3P, Beacon Partners, Cardinal Innovations Healthcare, Project 658, Messer.
- Although the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council did not provide funding for the project, the organization advocated on behalf of the MYEP, which was very helpful.
Funding:
The total budget of the MYEP program was approximately $474,680 (not including six staff members). Of that, business partners donated approximately $277,280 for student scholarships. The virtual platform (developed by Radius) cost $100,000 of which $72,590 was paid by the City and $27,140 was paid by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Key Challenges:
Leveraging funding streams to pay students.
One challenge identified by the MYEP team was determining how to utilize the various funding streams available to provide monetary compensation to students. The city revised its vendor requirements to allow students to receive scholarships at the end of the program. Youth were classified as “program participants” and staff provided hours completion documentation to the city’s Human Resources Department. An additional 100 students were funded through CMS and turned in weekly timesheets.
Access to technology and the Internet.
The city leveraged federal Perkins funding provided through CMS and corporate donations to ensure all participating youth had access to a Chromebook and hotspot. MYEP provided hotspots to students who were not enrolled in CMS. Although Chromebook limitations caused some students to experience technical issues when accessing the learning platform, the close relationship with Radius Learning allowed the City of Charlotte and CMS to real-time troubleshoot issues for students. Platform developers now have working knowledge of Chromebook limitations and can develop future content that will work with all available equipment provided to the students.
Summary of Project Impact
- 50-plus professionals engaged with youth
- 291 youth earned certificates provided by top employers.
- Youth in the program:
– Developed new financial technologies with Bank of America
– Reimagined the city’s infrastructure with Siemens
– Expanded healthcare access with Atrium
– Developed sustainable innovations with Sealed Air
– Designed platforms to support small businesses with Accenture
Adapt This Approach:
Steps to Success – Step 3
Step 3a: Employer Partnerships
- Sign up employers for 3–5 tracks.
- Develop concepts for 5 tracks.
- Share track concepts with prospective industry partners.
- Scope engagement with executives at prospective employers. Executives communicate hiring challenges and future talent needs.
- Present employers with custom track concepts resulting from scoping sessions.
- Sign up 3–5 employers to lead tracks.
- Engage employer in scoping pathways
- Executive assigns a liaison/champion for pathway success.
- Managers share sample tasks and job assignments for target occupations.
- HR shares hiring assessments and candidate criteria.
- Develop pathway and submit concepts for review and collaborative editing with employer.
- Employer sets target outcomes (ideal number of students, potential hiring commitments) for success.
- Employer approves pathway
- Schedule employer volunteers to engage with youth.
- Managers upload videos, write welcome messages, and provide introductory letters for each pathway stage.
- Assign managers to coach/engage with student teams at structured touchpoints throughout the program.
- Develop and provide for employer review a schedule of programmed interactions for employees engaged in the delivery of pathway program.
- Schedule 2–3 webinars with SMEs from the company.
Step 3b: Learning and Experience Design
- Develop pathway blueprints
- Develop learning design architecture and refine with team.
- Collaborate with school CTE program to define conditions for student success and scope pathway skills for beginner skill level.
- Develop blueprint for the required number of hours, outlining authentic work-based tasks to be completed at each stage.
- Based on employer feedback, adapt pathway for each track.
- Develop pathway for each track
- Define separate assignments and work-based learning tasks for each track based on employer feedback.
- Build in LinkedIn Learning paths to provide interactive content for each track.
- Demo a day in the life of a youth participant to partners and refine based on feedback.
- Submit pathways to partners and employers for collaborative review.
- Demo student experience
- Present experience to select youth participants and get feedback. Refine.
- Build assessment systems for managers to provide feedback to students at key stages.
- Schedule interactions between students and managers to align with pathway content.
- Demo pathways to partners as time allows prior to program launch.
Step 3c: Digital Design and Development
- Build pathways with interactive platform
- Define essential features for each track.
- Test features on platform.
- Scope virtual experience and interactive elements.
- Demo and launch virtual pathways.
- Upload each pathway onto the platform and demo to partners. Test IT infrastructure.
- License team subscriptions for tools to assign to students.
- Launch virtual pathways for students to access.
Step 3d: Pathway Delivery Plan
- Schedule pathway programming and delivery.
- Schedule the complete set of interactions between students, industry partners, and volunteers.
- Work with partners to define conditions for a successful experience for each stakeholder.
- Develop, refine, approve pathway management (outcomes strategy) plan.
Cost and Time Commitments:
The MYEP team was able to reimagine this program within 90 days due in large part to their partnerships with CMS and major employers in the region as well as its ability to rapidly procure the services of a learning technology partner.
Additionally, because this was a city-run program, the City of Charlotte Youth Programs staff were able to bring to bear their own staff time to redesign the program. For cities interested in duplicating this model, the time and resources required will depend on a variety of factors including:
- Existing relationships and coordination with partners and employers
- Ability to leverage third party vendors to quickly design and develop programming and/or other needed program elements
- Availability of staff to redesign the program
- Funding flexibility. Although Charlotte was able to pull this off in 90 days, MYEP leadership noted that additional planning time would have benefited their model and likely allowed for the inclusion of additional pathways and participants.
Do:
Act early:
- Begin to reimagine how to provide services via an asset-based approach.
- Identify elements and infrastructure currently available to your program.
- Think about what additional elements, infrastructure, and technology would be nice to have (virtual learning platform, funding for stipends, additional staff support, alignment with in-demand industry sectors, etc.).
- Identify partners with similar missions and initiatives who may be interested in collaborating. Use your connections across your economic ecosystem to help identify industry partners who can contribute (monetary, work-based learning assistance, etc.).
- Come to the table with ideas. Be willing to listen to ideas of others.
- Look for common ground that can help you develop a plan.
- Do evaluate proven models, such as the Swiss Apprenticeship system that seek alignment between education and employment.
- Do identify virtual work-based learning experiences that are flexible and offer access to future employment.
- Do find partners who can deliver online learning platforms that track activity, hours, and progress.
- Do think about scale and how this project can be scaled up for multiple participants or year-round learning.
- Do reach out to local school systems to see how goals can be leveraged.
Don’t:
- Don’t assume funding streams can all be used in the same way. Creative thinking and problem-solving may be needed to identify which program components each funding stream can support and how to ensure documentation requirements are met.
Resources:
Case Study #2
DTE Energy “Work From Anywhere”
Toolkit and Summer Youth Internship Program, Detroit, MI
Program Overview:
- Training stipend of $15/hr
- Up to $450 per week
- Up to 10,000 residents by September 2021
- Anticipate 80% receiving wraparound support
DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) is a Detroit-based diversified energy company serving more than 3 million electric and natural gas customers in Michigan. Since 2017, DTE has worked directly with the city of Detroit on a variety of workforce and talent development efforts that align with the company’s aspirations to be a “Force for Growth” and promote prosperity in the communities where DTE’s 10,000- plus employees live and serve.
This includes projects that move the organization closer to achieving DTE’s “Employment and Education” goals including:
- Closing the digital divide impacting Detroit schoolchildren
- Providing FIRST Robotics sponsorships
- Hosting and participating in workshops and educational programs
- Providing training and work-based experiences that include internships and cooperatives
DTE believes internships offer a win-win opportunity for the company to share knowledge with the next generation of leaders and position youth for future success in a learning environment that also fills DTE’s talent pipeline with motivated, prepared candidates.
As a result of this commitment, DTE traditionally employs or sponsors 1,500 students annually: 850 interns on-site and 650 students through the DTE Energy Foundation that are supported through programs such as Grow Detroit Young Talent (GYDT), a summer program that serves 8,000 youth.
In early 2020, when it was clear the COVID-19 pandemic would greatly impact its summer intern programs, DTE leaders knew they needed to find a way to sustain these opportunities for students. DTE leaders formed an emergency planning team comprising experts who had worked together to tackle big workforce and talent challenges for more than three years.
A key partner in this effort was the Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC), the City of Detroit’s workforce agency and one of 16 Michigan Works! agencies statewide. The team met weekly to transition its on-site internship approach into a full virtual program. Team members knew converting internship programs to a virtual or “work from anywhere” office needed to include new and creative ways to complete meaningful work, collaborate with leaders and co-workers, and stay socially connected without meeting in person.
As a result of these efforts, DTE reimagined the structure of its programs, and provided a corporate contribution in March 2020 of $1,000,000 for stipends for their career pathway interns, and the deployment of virtual work experience platforms. DTE’s Workforce Development team also developed a Work From Anywhere Toolkit to aid other companies moving to virtual internships. In the summer of 2020, DTE served more than 500 interns, including 86 high school students. Stipends for high school students ranged from $11 to $13 per hour during a six-week experience with engaging activities and training designed to build employability skills.
Youth virtually connected with mentors daily and had opportunities to connect with their peers the same way. They also engaged with two web-based platforms as part of their internship program: 1) Educational Data Systems, Inc. (EDSI) provided a variety of virtual instructor-led training specific to the energy industry, using a project-based approach through cohorts of students to provide practical application of skills; and 2) Virtual Job Shadow provided career exploration opportunities.
Key Partnerships:
- DTE Energy provided internal in-kind support from across the company to ensure the success and sustainability of the program.
- Multiple business units worked to develop the toolkit, provide IT hardware and support, and mentor and engage youth throughout their internships.
- Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT) is a citywide summer jobs program that trains and employs young adults between the ages of 14 and 24 for up to 120 hours.
- Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC) is the City of Detroit’s workforce agency and reports to the Mayor’s Workforce Development Board, which was established by the Mayor of Detroit. DESC is also the lead agency for Detroit at Work, which provides job placement, search, training, career advisement and other supportive services to tens of thousands of Detroiters every year. DESC was instrumental in the redesign of the program.
Funding:
DTE and the DTE Foundation provided extensive financial and in-kind resources to support the Summer Youth Internship Program and a corresponding toolkit:
- The toolkit was funded through in-kind and repurposed DTE corporate funds and developed in partnership with several DTE business units.
- The DTE IT department set up a mobile laptop and hotspot assignment and support center to ensure all summer interns could successfully access virtual opportunities.
- The DTE Foundation provides $600,000 every year to fund program operations and student stipends for career pathway interns that work at companies across the region and are registered with Grow Detroit’s Young Talent.
- DTE dedicates two full-time employees to run its high school intern program; other staff helped as needed to support the transition to a virtual design. During the six-week program, four employees dedicated approximately 25% of their time to support the program.
- DTE provided funding to GDYT at the end of 2019 to support the purchase of the Educational Data Systems, Inc. (EDSI) and Virtual Job Shadow platforms used for the internship program.
Key Challenges:
Virtual connections pose challenges to initial relationship building.
In the beginning, students took a bit longer to feel comfortable connecting with their mentors and DTE staff. DTE’s Workforce Development team worked to develop engaging programming with interactive segments each day including Motivational Mondays, TikTok Tuesdays, Wellness Wednesdays, and Interactive Thursdays. Mentors and staff also checked in with each student twice daily to build rapport with the students.
Virtual programs still need to help interns develop professional skills, while simultaneously introducing them to the workforce.
Interns need structure that supports both needs, so the program was designed with virtual work, virtual job shadowing, career awareness, essential skills training, mentorship, and networking components in mind.
- 67% of the program focused on work within assigned business units
– Job-specific work exposure
– Virtual mentors
– Capstone project - 33% of the program focused on career development
– Office and skilled trades training
– Motivational speakers
– Virtual tours
Students’ home environments may not be ideal for a virtual internship approach
The program recognizes that students may join from challenging remote work environments or homes that are not ideally suited for remote work. Specific challenges included lack of air conditioning; a private, quiet place to work; and or home environments where students were uncomfortable sharing on camera. Purchasing virtual backgrounds for students can help students feel comfortable to turn on their camera while at home. Program mentors and leaders recognized this, focused on wellness of the student and worked to maintain engagement with students through daily check-ins and interactive programming in spite of these challenges.
Summary of Project Impact
DTE reports the following outcomes:
- 95% of the 500 youth transitioned to virtual operations
- 86 high school students (16–18 years old) served
– 100% transitioned to a virtual internship
– 80% completion rate
– 300+ hours volunteered by mentors
DTE is committed to continuous improvement and asked all 500 students to complete surveys at the beginning and the end of the program. Of youth who participated:
- 83% found it easy/very easy to transition to virtual work
- 96% agreed/strongly agreed they developed meaningful connections
- 81% rated their workgroups as highly or generally available and responsive and their leaders at 71%
- 81% reported an excellent experience with their mentor
- 60% prefer combination of virtual and on-site work
- 24% prefer on-site work
- 14% prefer virtual
- 88% said the program fully met expectations or exceeded expectations
DTE expects that next year will see a hybrid approach and intends to use the feedback and data collected to improve the program and prepare for next year.
Adapt This Approach:
DTE developed a detailed 31-page toolkit as a resource to help other organizations create a successful and efficient virtual internship program. The following map was developed by DTE to outline the development process:
Cost and Time Commitments:
DTE and the DTE Foundation provided extensive financial and in-kind resources to reimagine its Summer Youth Internship Program and develop the corresponding toolkit. Additionally, DTE’s ability to leverage the expertise of multiple divisions (IT, HR, Communications, etc.) within its own company contributed greatly to its success.
For companies interested in duplicating this model, the time and resources required will depend on a variety of factors including:
- Existing internship program or experience with providing internships as part of a city-run program
- Commitment and support from company (both financial and in-kind)
- Relationships and coordination with external partners
- Availability of funding
- Availability of staff to design, implement, and run the program as well as serve as mentors.
Dos:
- Do consider the high level of internal/in-kind resources that need to be committed both to organize the virtual internship program and mentor participants. The number of internships offered can be scaled, though, to match the available stipend and in-kind resources.
- Do leverage the internal planning skills of your organization. DTE specifically capitalized on its internal consulting and planning skill set to redesign its programs.
- Do look for ways to strategically partner with external organizations, identify areas where your missions align and engage leaders with a passion for outcomes. DTE was highly engaged with its local workforce agency and tapped into the experience of that organization and other non-profits.
- Do communicate regularly with leadership and partners. Maintaining constant communication is important to ensure everyone is on the same page and working effectively and efficiently.
- Do identify one or two big companies to guide/drive your city’s broader summer youth program, then ask the city’s leaders to bring in other companies for additional support. Include corporate giving and tax incentives in your “what’s in it for me” message.
- Do use a competitive procurement process to identify vendors. Even if it is a fast process, this is valuable for ensuring that you buy a competitively priced product or service.
- Do ensure your programming is developmentally appropriate. Youth can’t sit in front of a computer all day and stay engaged! Do remember “purpose” is more important than “process.” Be flexible and don’t let procedural issues become barriers to success.
- Do expand your network of partners to the state and national levels. This provides opportunities to share your good work and also learn new approaches and strategies from other parts of the state and nation. DTE, specifically, is involved with the Michigan Energy Workforce Development Consortium, the Center for Energy Workforce Development, the Michigan State Department of Education and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
- Do ensure you are focused on your company’s internship hiring timeline and discuss with your partners well in advance of the timing needed to source students. It can be overly burdensome or difficult to align your internal processes with external deadlines so it’s important to closely evaluate timelines and collaborate/adjust as needed.
Don’ts:
- Don’t expect 100% student completion. Some students face challenging personal situations and home environments, and some will experience unexpected situations, e.g., needing to complete summer school due to pandemic-related disruptions in the spring, and may also have more than one job.
Learn more about the Workforce Tactical Guide
COVID-19 Economic Response and Recovery
Develop partnerships with local stakeholders to quickly identify program gaps and to establish a mentor network
Ways to Help Youth Prepare to Enter the Labor Market
Background:
In light of social distancing and COVID-19 regulations, many summer youth programs were canceled and year-round programs significantly curtailed. These programs, however, are critical for underserved populations, both financially and as a means of providing youth with opportunities to develop skills and exposure to careers.
Youth overall have been gravely impacted by unemployment due to COVID-19, with rates generally higher in 2020 than during and after the Great Recession. Minority youth have experienced the greatest impact from unemployment, and youth generally have been disproportionately represented in job losses in industries such as food service, recreation, and hospitality.
Given the importance of youth employment, both for financial reasons and to ensuring exposure to the world of work, this toolkit highlights two programs that successfully pivoted to a virtual approach. Successful elements of both programs, to varying degrees, include:
Each example, to varying degrees, includes the following essential elements:
Major employers are key.
In both the Charlotte Mayor’s Youth Employment Program (MYEP) and the DTE Energy Summer Youth Internship Program (SYIP) examples, major employers (both large and growing) played major roles in the success of their respective programs. Due to their size, they are able to dedicate the human resources, and in some cases the financial resources, to providing summer employment opportunities for youth.
Commitment to growing talent for industries that are high-demand locally.
The MYEP and SYIP both focus on industries that are growing locally. The SYIP includes a focus on specifically growing the energy talent pipeline to ensure it has an ongoing supply of talent, while the MYEP program is focused on exposing youth to local opportunities in the city’s target industries as a talent development strategy and a workforce retention tool.
Robust partnerships improved program funding and programming.
The MYEP was closely connected to the secondary school system — both for funding and for access to teacher mentors — and the SYIP program had close partnerships with the local public workforce system and a youth-focused non-profit. These partnerships enhanced both programs’ ability to pivot quickly from an in-person to a virtual approach.
Leveraged virtual technology platforms and software to deliver engaging, relevant content.
In both examples, the lead organization procured one or more third parties to provide or develop content to use in their virtual internship program. MYEP’s solution was totally customized, while SYIP’s was more “off the shelf,” but in both cases, the use of a blended approach — engagement in a web-based program plus employer-specific activities — allowed the programs to provide a rich, diverse experience.
Case Study #1
The City of Charlotte’s Mayor’s Youth Employment Program, Charlotte, NC
Program Overview:
- July 6–August 7
- Mondays–Thursdays from 9:30–2:30
- 315 Participants
- 20 Team Leads
- Teams of 4–5
- $900 Scholarship
The Mayor’s Youth Employment Program has been connecting youth in Charlotte with local employers since 1986 with a focus on leveraging relationships with businesses and the community to provide meaningful, career-oriented internships for youth. While MYEP had traditionally provided in-person experiences, it was clear early in 2020 that in-person internships were not an option for the over 500 students enrolled in the program.
In March, the City of Charlotte’s MYEP team began reimagining what a virtual internship might look like. Through a connection with the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council (CELC), the team contracted with Radius Learning, a company that develops workbased education pathways with the private sector and academic institutions. They immediately began to re-engineer the MYEP’s summer experience and were quickly joined by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) and LinkedIn Learning in the effort to identify and secure funding, human capital resources, and learning assets.
Over a period of weeks, the aforementioned partners, also known as the MYEP Virtual Pathways Team, collaborated with leading employers in the region to develop five virtual pathways:
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Business & Finance
- Technology
- Innovation
- Healthcare
Charlotte employers shared learning and development content and information on their skills profiles, which Radius then incorporated into five week pathway experiences for MYEP participants. Each pathway included 100 hours of skills-based tasks simulating future jobs and was aligned with an overall project related to a real-world challenge in the community. The MYEP Virtual Pathways Team worked to design experiences so youth felt like they had a job, rather than watching someone else do a job, in order to create buy-in and opportunities for growth. They also were intentional about designing work-based learning activities through which participants would experience success and have a sense of contributing towards the greater good.
Virtual pathways consisted of:
- Skills development provided in partnership with Radius Learning and LinkedIn Learning
- Work-based adventures to expose participants to the tasks they will face in future roles
- Coaching sessions with team leads from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
- Industry interactive sessions with representatives from local employers
- Life skills sessions focused on developing confidence and professional habits
The design of each pathway included Radius Learning’s 360° Future Skills Fundamentals framework that focuses on the changing skills needed for the next generation of work. Key skill areas include organizational, socioemotional, rational, technological and entrepreneurial. The pathways and the platform were built by Radius Learning in about 90 days
Key Partnerships:
- City of Charlotte Youth Programs administers the program and is one of the funders.
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) CTE provided Perkins funding for 20 Career and Technical Education teachers to mentor youth through the process.
- The curriculum was developed and provided by Radius Learning and LinkedIn Learning.
- Radius Learning built the platform.
- Industry partners included Bank of America, Atrium Healthcare, Siemens, Accenture, Sealed Air, Rare Roots Hospitality, Red Ventures, Balfour Beatty Construction, Corsan, LS3P, Beacon Partners, Cardinal Innovations Healthcare, Project 658, Messer.
- Although the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council did not provide funding for the project, the organization advocated on behalf of the MYEP, which was very helpful.
Funding:
The total budget of the MYEP program was approximately $474,680 (not including six staff members). Of that, business partners donated approximately $277,280 for student scholarships. The virtual platform (developed by Radius) cost $100,000 of which $72,590 was paid by the City and $27,140 was paid by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Key Challenges:
Leveraging funding streams to pay students.
One challenge identified by the MYEP team was determining how to utilize the various funding streams available to provide monetary compensation to students. The city revised its vendor requirements to allow students to receive scholarships at the end of the program. Youth were classified as “program participants” and staff provided hours completion documentation to the city’s Human Resources Department. An additional 100 students were funded through CMS and turned in weekly timesheets.
Access to technology and the Internet.
The city leveraged federal Perkins funding provided through CMS and corporate donations to ensure all participating youth had access to a Chromebook and hotspot. MYEP provided hotspots to students who were not enrolled in CMS. Although Chromebook limitations caused some students to experience technical issues when accessing the learning platform, the close relationship with Radius Learning allowed the City of Charlotte and CMS to real-time troubleshoot issues for students. Platform developers now have working knowledge of Chromebook limitations and can develop future content that will work with all available equipment provided to the students.
Summary of Project Impact
- 50-plus professionals engaged with youth
- 291 youth earned certificates provided by top employers.
- Youth in the program:
– Developed new financial technologies with Bank of America
– Reimagined the city’s infrastructure with Siemens
– Expanded healthcare access with Atrium
– Developed sustainable innovations with Sealed Air
– Designed platforms to support small businesses with Accenture
Adapt this approach:
Steps to Success – Step 3
Step 3a: Employer Partnerships
- Sign up employers for 3–5 tracks.
- Develop concepts for 5 tracks.
- Share track concepts with prospective industry partners.
- Scope engagement with executives at prospective employers. Executives communicate hiring challenges and future talent needs.
- Present employers with custom track concepts resulting from scoping sessions.
- Sign up 3–5 employers to lead tracks.
- Engage employer in scoping pathways
- Executive assigns a liaison/champion for pathway success.
- Managers share sample tasks and job assignments for target occupations.
- HR shares hiring assessments and candidate criteria.
- Develop pathway and submit concepts for review and collaborative editing with employer.
- Employer sets target outcomes (ideal number of students, potential hiring commitments) for success.
- Employer approves pathway
- Schedule employer volunteers to engage with youth.
- Managers upload videos, write welcome messages, and provide introductory letters for each pathway stage.
- Assign managers to coach/engage with student teams at structured touchpoints throughout the program.
- Develop and provide for employer review a schedule of programmed interactions for employees engaged in the delivery of pathway program.
- Schedule 2–3 webinars with SMEs from the company.
Step 3b: Learning and Experience Design
- Develop pathway blueprints
- Develop learning design architecture and refine with team.
- Collaborate with school CTE program to define conditions for student success and scope pathway skills for beginner skill level.
- Develop blueprint for the required number of hours, outlining authentic work-based tasks to be completed at each stage.
- Based on employer feedback, adapt pathway for each track.
- Develop pathway for each track
- Define separate assignments and work-based learning tasks for each track based on employer feedback.
- Build in LinkedIn Learning paths to provide interactive content for each track.
- Demo a day in the life of a youth participant to partners and refine based on feedback.
- Submit pathways to partners and employers for collaborative review.
- Demo student experience
- Present experience to select youth participants and get feedback. Refine.
- Build assessment systems for managers to provide feedback to students at key stages.
- Schedule interactions between students and managers to align with pathway content.
- Demo pathways to partners as time allows prior to program launch.
Step 3c: Digital Design and Development
- Build pathways with interactive platform
- Define essential features for each track.
- Test features on platform.
- Scope virtual experience and interactive elements.
- Demo and launch virtual pathways.
- Upload each pathway onto the platform and demo to partners. Test IT infrastructure.
- License team subscriptions for tools to assign to students.
- Launch virtual pathways for students to access.
Step 3d: Pathway Delivery Plan
- Schedule pathway programming and delivery.
- Schedule the complete set of interactions between students, industry partners, and volunteers.
- Work with partners to define conditions for a successful experience for each stakeholder.
- Develop, refine, approve pathway management (outcomes strategy) plan.
Cost and Time Commitments:
The MYEP team was able to reimagine this program within 90 days due in large part to their partnerships with CMS and major employers in the region as well as its ability to rapidly procure the services of a learning technology partner.
Additionally, because this was a city-run program, the City of Charlotte Youth Programs staff were able to bring to bear their own staff time to redesign the program. For cities interested in duplicating this model, the time and resources required will depend on a variety of factors including:
- Existing relationships and coordination with partners and employers
- Ability to leverage third party vendors to quickly design and develop programming and/or other needed program elements
- Availability of staff to redesign the program
- Funding flexibility. Although Charlotte was able to pull this off in 90 days, MYEP leadership noted that additional planning time would have benefited their model and likely allowed for the inclusion of additional pathways and participants.
Do:
Act early:
- Begin to reimagine how to provide services via an asset-based approach.
- Identify elements and infrastructure currently available to your program.
- Think about what additional elements, infrastructure, and technology would be nice to have (virtual learning platform, funding for stipends, additional staff support, alignment with in-demand industry sectors, etc.).
- Identify partners with similar missions and initiatives who may be interested in collaborating. Use your connections across your economic ecosystem to help identify industry partners who can contribute (monetary, work-based learning assistance, etc.).
- Come to the table with ideas. Be willing to listen to ideas of others.
- Look for common ground that can help you develop a plan.
- Do evaluate proven models, such as the Swiss Apprenticeship system that seek alignment between education and employment.
- Do identify virtual work-based learning experiences that are flexible and offer access to future employment.
- Do find partners who can deliver online learning platforms that track activity, hours, and progress.
- Do think about scale and how this project can be scaled up for multiple participants or year-round learning.
- Do reach out to local school systems to see how goals can be leveraged.
Don’t:
- Don’t assume funding streams can all be used in the same way. Creative thinking and problem-solving may be needed to identify which program components each funding stream can support and how to ensure documentation requirements are met.
Resources:
Case Study #2
DTE Energy “Work From Anywhere”
Toolkit and Summer Youth
Internship Program, Detroit, MI
- Training stipend of $15/hr
- Up to $450 per week
- Up to 10,000 residents by September 2021
- Anticipate 80% receiving wraparound support
DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) is a Detroit-based diversified energy company serving more than 3 million electric and natural gas customers in Michigan. Since 2017, DTE has worked directly with the city of Detroit on a variety of workforce and talent development efforts that align with the company’s aspirations to be a “Force for Growth” and promote prosperity in the communities where DTE’s 10,000- plus employees live and serve.
This includes projects that move the organization closer to achieving DTE’s “Employment and Education” goals including:
- Closing the digital divide impacting Detroit schoolchildren
- Providing FIRST Robotics sponsorships
- Hosting and participating in workshops and educational programs
- Providing training and work-based experiences that include internships and cooperatives
DTE believes internships offer a win-win opportunity for the company to share knowledge with the next generation of leaders and position youth for future success in a learning environment that also fills DTE’s talent pipeline with motivated, prepared candidates.
As a result of this commitment, DTE traditionally employs or sponsors 1,500 students annually: 850 interns on-site and 650 students through the DTE Energy Foundation that are supported through programs such as Grow Detroit Young Talent (GYDT), a summer program that serves 8,000 youth.
In early 2020, when it was clear the COVID-19 pandemic would greatly impact its summer intern programs, DTE leaders knew they needed to find a way to sustain these opportunities for students. DTE leaders formed an emergency planning team comprising experts who had worked together to tackle big workforce and talent challenges for more than three years.
A key partner in this effort was the Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC), the City of Detroit’s workforce agency and one of 16 Michigan Works! agencies statewide. The team met weekly to transition its on-site internship approach into a full virtual program. Team members knew converting internship programs to a virtual or “work from anywhere” office needed to include new and creative ways to complete meaningful work, collaborate with leaders and co-workers, and stay socially connected without meeting in person.
As a result of these efforts, DTE reimagined the structure of its programs, and provided a corporate contribution in March 2020 of $1,000,000 for stipends for their career pathway interns, and the deployment of virtual work experience platforms. DTE’s Workforce Development team also developed a Work From Anywhere Toolkit to aid other companies moving to virtual internships. In the summer of 2020, DTE served more than 500 interns, including 86 high school students. Stipends for high school students ranged from $11 to $13 per hour during a six-week experience with engaging activities and training designed to build employability skills.
Youth virtually connected with mentors daily and had opportunities to connect with their peers the same way. They also engaged with two web-based platforms as part of their internship program: 1) Educational Data Systems, Inc. (EDSI) provided a variety of virtual instructor-led training specific to the energy industry, using a project-based approach through cohorts of students to provide practical application of skills; and 2) Virtual Job Shadow provided career exploration opportunities.
Key Partnerships:
- DTE Energy provided internal in-kind support from across the company to ensure the success and sustainability of the program.
- Multiple business units worked to develop the toolkit, provide IT hardware and support, and mentor and engage youth throughout their internships.
- Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT) is a citywide summer jobs program that trains and employs young adults between the ages of 14 and 24 for up to 120 hours.
- Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC) is the City of Detroit’s workforce agency and reports to the Mayor’s Workforce Development Board, which was established by the Mayor of Detroit. DESC is also the lead agency for Detroit at Work, which provides job placement, search, training, career advisement and other supportive services to tens of thousands of Detroiters every year. DESC was instrumental in the redesign of the program.
Funding:
DTE and the DTE Foundation provided extensive financial and in-kind resources to support the Summer Youth Internship Program and a corresponding toolkit:
- The toolkit was funded through in-kind and repurposed DTE corporate funds and developed in partnership with several DTE business units.
- The DTE IT department set up a mobile laptop and hotspot assignment and support center to ensure all summer interns could successfully access virtual opportunities.
- The DTE Foundation provides $600,000 every year to fund program operations and student stipends for career pathway interns that work at companies across the region and are registered with Grow Detroit’s Young Talent.
- DTE dedicates two full-time employees to run its high school intern program; other staff helped as needed to support the transition to a virtual design. During the six-week program, four employees dedicated approximately 25% of their time to support the program.
- DTE provided funding to GDYT at the end of 2019 to support the purchase of the Educational Data Systems, Inc. (EDSI) and Virtual Job Shadow platforms used for the internship program.
Key Challenges:
Virtual connections pose challenges to initial relationship building.
In the beginning, students took a bit longer to feel comfortable connecting with their mentors and DTE staff. DTE’s Workforce Development team worked to develop engaging programming with interactive segments each day including Motivational Mondays, TikTok Tuesdays, Wellness Wednesdays, and Interactive Thursdays. Mentors and staff also checked in with each student twice daily to build rapport with the students.
Virtual programs still need to help interns develop professional skills, while simultaneously introducing them to the workforce.
Interns need structure that supports both needs, so the program was designed with virtual work, virtual job shadowing, career awareness, essential skills training, mentorship, and networking components in mind.
- 67% of the program focused on work within assigned business units
– Job-specific work exposure
– Virtual mentors
– Capstone project - 33% of the program focused on career development
– Office and skilled trades training
– Motivational speakers
– Virtual tours
Students’ home environments may not be ideal for a virtual internship approach
The program recognizes that students may join from challenging remote work environments or homes that are not ideally suited for remote work. Specific challenges included lack of air conditioning; a private, quiet place to work; and or home environments where students were uncomfortable sharing on camera. Purchasing virtual backgrounds for students can help students feel comfortable to turn on their camera while at home. Program mentors and leaders recognized this, focused on wellness of the student and worked to maintain engagement with students through daily check-ins and interactive programming in spite of these challenges.
Summary of Project Impact
DTE reports the following outcomes:
- 95% of the 500 youth transitioned to virtual operations
- 86 high school students (16–18 years old) served
– 100% transitioned to a virtual internship
– 80% completion rate
– 300+ hours volunteered by mentors
DTE is committed to continuous improvement and asked all 500 students to complete surveys at the beginning and the end of the program. Of youth who participated:
- 83% found it easy/very easy to transition to virtual work
- 96% agreed/strongly agreed they developed meaningful connections
- 81% rated their workgroups as highly or generally available and responsive and their leaders at 71%
- 81% reported an excellent experience with their mentor
- 60% prefer combination of virtual and on-site work
- 24% prefer on-site work
- 14% prefer virtual
- 88% said the program fully met expectations or exceeded expectations
DTE expects that next year will see a hybrid approach and intends to use the feedback and data collected to improve the program and prepare for next year.
Adapt this approach:
DTE developed a detailed 31-page toolkit as a resource to help other organizations create a successful and efficient virtual internship program. The following map was developed by DTE to outline the development process:
Cost and Time Commitments:
DTE and the DTE Foundation provided extensive financial and in-kind resources to reimagine its Summer Youth Internship Program and develop the corresponding toolkit. Additionally, DTE’s ability to leverage the expertise of multiple divisions (IT, HR, Communications, etc.) within its own company contributed greatly to its success.
For companies interested in duplicating this model, the time and resources required will depend on a variety of factors including:
- Existing internship program or experience with providing internships as part of a city-run program
- Commitment and support from company (both financial and in-kind)
- Relationships and coordination with external partners
- Availability of funding
- Availability of staff to design, implement, and run the program as well as serve as mentors.
Do:
- Do consider the high level of internal/in-kind resources that need to be committed both to organize the virtual internship program and mentor participants. The number of internships offered can be scaled, though, to match the available stipend and in-kind resources.
- Do leverage the internal planning skills of your organization. DTE specifically capitalized on its internal consulting and planning skill set to redesign its programs.
- Do look for ways to strategically partner with external organizations, identify areas where your missions align and engage leaders with a passion for outcomes. DTE was highly engaged with its local workforce agency and tapped into the experience of that organization and other non-profits.
- Do communicate regularly with leadership and partners. Maintaining constant communication is important to ensure everyone is on the same page and working effectively and efficiently.
- Do identify one or two big companies to guide/drive your city’s broader summer youth program, then ask the city’s leaders to bring in other companies for additional support. Include corporate giving and tax incentives in your “what’s in it for me” message.
- Do use a competitive procurement process to identify vendors. Even if it is a fast process, this is valuable for ensuring that you buy a competitively priced product or service.
- Do ensure your programming is developmentally appropriate. Youth can’t sit in front of a computer all day and stay engaged! Do remember “purpose” is more important than “process.” Be flexible and don’t let procedural issues become barriers to success.
- Do expand your network of partners to the state and national levels. This provides opportunities to share your good work and also learn new approaches and strategies from other parts of the state and nation. DTE, specifically, is involved with the Michigan Energy Workforce Development Consortium, the Center for Energy Workforce Development, the Michigan State Department of Education and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
- Do ensure you are focused on your company’s internship hiring timeline and discuss with your partners well in advance of the timing needed to source students. It can be overly burdensome or difficult to align your internal processes with external deadlines so it’s important to closely evaluate timelines and collaborate/adjust as needed.
Don’t:
- Don’t expect 100% student completion. Some students face challenging personal situations and home environments, and some will experience unexpected situations, e.g., needing to complete summer school due to pandemic-related disruptions in the spring, and may also have more than one job.
Learn more about Workforce Tactical Guide
COVID-19 Economic Response and Recovery
Center programs around local, high-growth and high-demand industries
Ways to Help Youth Prepare to Enter the Labor Market
Background:
In light of social distancing and COVID-19 regulations, many summer youth programs were canceled and year-round programs significantly curtailed. These programs, however, are critical for underserved populations, both financially and as a means of providing youth with opportunities to develop skills and exposure to careers.
Youth overall have been gravely impacted by unemployment due to COVID-19, with rates generally higher in 2020 than during and after the Great Recession. Minority youth have experienced the greatest impact from unemployment, and youth generally have been disproportionately represented in job losses in industries such as food service, recreation, and hospitality.
Given the importance of youth employment, both for financial reasons and to ensuring exposure to the world of work, this toolkit highlights two programs that successfully pivoted to a virtual approach. Successful elements of both programs, to varying degrees, include:
Each example, to varying degrees, includes the following essential elements:
Major employers are key.
In both the Charlotte Mayor’s Youth Employment Program (MYEP) and the DTE Energy Summer Youth Internship Program (SYIP) examples, major employers (both large and growing) played major roles in the success of their respective programs. Due to their size, they are able to dedicate the human resources, and in some cases the financial resources, to providing summer employment opportunities for youth.
Commitment to growing talent for industries that are high-demand locally.
The MYEP and SYIP both focus on industries that are growing locally. The SYIP includes a focus on specifically growing the energy talent pipeline to ensure it has an ongoing supply of talent, while the MYEP program is focused on exposing youth to local opportunities in the city’s target industries as a talent development strategy and a workforce retention tool.
Robust partnerships improved program funding and programming.
The MYEP was closely connected to the secondary school system — both for funding and for access to teacher mentors — and the SYIP program had close partnerships with the local public workforce system and a youth-focused non-profit. These partnerships enhanced both programs’ ability to pivot quickly from an in-person to a virtual approach.
Leveraged virtual technology platforms and software to deliver engaging, relevant content.
In both examples, the lead organization procured one or more third parties to provide or develop content to use in their virtual internship program. MYEP’s solution was totally customized, while SYIP’s was more “off the shelf,” but in both cases, the use of a blended approach — engagement in a web-based program plus employer-specific activities — allowed the programs to provide a rich, diverse experience.
Case Study #1
The City of Charlotte’s Mayor’s Youth Employment Program, Charlotte, NC
Program Overview:
- July 6–August 7
- Mondays–Thursdays from 9:30–2:30
- 315 Participants
- 20 Team Leads
- Teams of 4–5
- $900 Scholarship
The Mayor’s Youth Employment Program has been connecting youth in Charlotte with local employers since 1986 with a focus on leveraging relationships with businesses and the community to provide meaningful, career-oriented internships for youth. While MYEP had traditionally provided in-person experiences, it was clear early in 2020 that in-person internships were not an option for the over 500 students enrolled in the program.
In March, the City of Charlotte’s MYEP team began reimagining what a virtual internship might look like. Through a connection with the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council (CELC), the team contracted with Radius Learning, a company that develops workbased education pathways with the private sector and academic institutions. They immediately began to re-engineer the MYEP’s summer experience and were quickly joined by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) and LinkedIn Learning in the effort to identify and secure funding, human capital resources, and learning assets.
Over a period of weeks, the aforementioned partners, also known as the MYEP Virtual Pathways Team, collaborated with leading employers in the region to develop five virtual pathways:
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Business & Finance
- Technology
- Innovation
- Healthcare
Charlotte employers shared learning and development content and information on their skills profiles, which Radius then incorporated into five week pathway experiences for MYEP participants. Each pathway included 100 hours of skills-based tasks simulating future jobs and was aligned with an overall project related to a real-world challenge in the community. The MYEP Virtual Pathways Team worked to design experiences so youth felt like they had a job, rather than watching someone else do a job, in order to create buy-in and opportunities for growth. They also were intentional about designing work-based learning activities through which participants would experience success and have a sense of contributing towards the greater good.
Virtual pathways consisted of:
- Skills development provided in partnership with Radius Learning and LinkedIn Learning
- Work-based adventures to expose participants to the tasks they will face in future roles
- Coaching sessions with team leads from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
- Industry interactive sessions with representatives from local employers
- Life skills sessions focused on developing confidence and professional habits
The design of each pathway included Radius Learning’s 360° Future Skills Fundamentals framework that focuses on the changing skills needed for the next generation of work. Key skill areas include organizational, socioemotional, rational, technological and entrepreneurial. The pathways and the platform were built by Radius Learning in about 90 days.
Key Partnerships:
- City of Charlotte Youth Programs administers the program and is one of the funders.
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) CTE provided Perkins funding for 20 Career and Technical Education teachers to mentor youth through the process.
- The curriculum was developed and provided by Radius Learning and LinkedIn Learning.
- Radius Learning built the platform.
- Industry partners included Bank of America, Atrium Healthcare, Siemens, Accenture, Sealed Air, Rare Roots Hospitality, Red Ventures, Balfour Beatty Construction, Corsan, LS3P, Beacon Partners, Cardinal Innovations Healthcare, Project 658, Messer.
- Although the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council did not provide funding for the project, the organization advocated on behalf of the MYEP, which was very helpful.
Funding:
The total budget of the MYEP program was approximately $474,680 (not including six staff members). Of that, business partners donated approximately $277,280 for student scholarships. The virtual platform (developed by Radius) cost $100,000 of which $72,590 was paid by the City and $27,140 was paid by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Key Challenges:
Leveraging funding streams to pay students.
One challenge identified by the MYEP team was determining how to utilize the various funding streams available to provide monetary compensation to students. The city revised its vendor requirements to allow students to receive scholarships at the end of the program. Youth were classified as “program participants” and staff provided hours completion documentation to the city’s Human Resources Department. An additional 100 students were funded through CMS and turned in weekly timesheets.
Access to technology and the Internet.
The city leveraged federal Perkins funding provided through CMS and corporate donations to ensure all participating youth had access to a Chromebook and hotspot. MYEP provided hotspots to students who were not enrolled in CMS. Although Chromebook limitations caused some students to experience technical issues when accessing the learning platform, the close relationship with Radius Learning allowed the City of Charlotte and CMS to real-time troubleshoot issues for students. Platform developers now have working knowledge of Chromebook limitations and can develop future content that will work with all available equipment provided to the students.
Summary of Project Impact
- 50-plus professionals engaged with youth
- 291 youth earned certificates provided by top employers.
- Youth in the program:
– Developed new financial technologies with Bank of America
– Reimagined the city’s infrastructure with Siemens
– Expanded healthcare access with Atrium
– Developed sustainable innovations with Sealed Air
– Designed platforms to support small businesses with Accenture
Adapt This Approach:
Steps to Success – Step 3
Step 3a: Employer Partnerships
- Sign up employers for 3–5 tracks.
- Develop concepts for 5 tracks.
- Share track concepts with prospective industry partners.
- Scope engagement with executives at prospective employers. Executives communicate hiring challenges and future talent needs.
- Present employers with custom track concepts resulting from scoping sessions.
- Sign up 3–5 employers to lead tracks.
- Engage employer in scoping pathways
- Executive assigns a liaison/champion for pathway success.
- Managers share sample tasks and job assignments for target occupations.
- HR shares hiring assessments and candidate criteria.
- Develop pathway and submit concepts for review and collaborative editing with employer.
- Employer sets target outcomes (ideal number of students, potential hiring commitments) for success.
- Employer approves pathway
- Schedule employer volunteers to engage with youth.
- Managers upload videos, write welcome messages, and provide introductory letters for each pathway stage.
- Assign managers to coach/engage with student teams at structured touchpoints throughout the program.
- Develop and provide for employer review a schedule of programmed interactions for employees engaged in the delivery of pathway program.
- Schedule 2–3 webinars with SMEs from the company.
Step 3b: Learning and Experience Design
- Develop pathway blueprints
- Develop learning design architecture and refine with team.
- Collaborate with school CTE program to define conditions for student success and scope pathway skills for beginner skill level.
- Develop blueprint for the required number of hours, outlining authentic work-based tasks to be completed at each stage.
- Based on employer feedback, adapt pathway for each track.
- Develop pathway for each track
- Define separate assignments and work-based learning tasks for each track based on employer feedback.
- Build in LinkedIn Learning paths to provide interactive content for each track.
- Demo a day in the life of a youth participant to partners and refine based on feedback.
- Submit pathways to partners and employers for collaborative review.
- Demo student experience
- Present experience to select youth participants and get feedback. Refine.
- Build assessment systems for managers to provide feedback to students at key stages.
- Schedule interactions between students and managers to align with pathway content.
- Demo pathways to partners as time allows prior to program launch.
Step 3c: Digital Design and Development
- Build pathways with interactive platform
- Define essential features for each track.
- Test features on platform.
- Scope virtual experience and interactive elements.
- Demo and launch virtual pathways.
- Upload each pathway onto the platform and demo to partners. Test IT infrastructure.
- License team subscriptions for tools to assign to students.
- Launch virtual pathways for students to access.
Step 3d: Pathway Delivery Plan
- Schedule pathway programming and delivery.
- Schedule the complete set of interactions between students, industry partners, and volunteers.
- Work with partners to define conditions for a successful experience for each stakeholder.
- Develop, refine, approve pathway management (outcomes strategy) plan.
Cost and Time Commitments:
The MYEP team was able to reimagine this program within 90 days due in large part to their partnerships with CMS and major employers in the region as well as its ability to rapidly procure the services of a learning technology partner.
Additionally, because this was a city-run program, the City of Charlotte Youth Programs staff were able to bring to bear their own staff time to redesign the program. For cities interested in duplicating this model, the time and resources required will depend on a variety of factors including:
- Existing relationships and coordination with partners and employers
- Ability to leverage third party vendors to quickly design and develop programming and/or other needed program elements
- Availability of staff to redesign the program
- Funding flexibility. Although Charlotte was able to pull this off in 90 days, MYEP leadership noted that additional planning time would have benefited their model and likely allowed for the inclusion of additional pathways and participants.
Do:
Act early:
- Begin to reimagine how to provide services via an asset-based approach.
- Identify elements and infrastructure currently available to your program.
- Think about what additional elements, infrastructure, and technology would be nice to have (virtual learning platform, funding for stipends, additional staff support, alignment with in-demand industry sectors, etc.).
- Identify partners with similar missions and initiatives who may be interested in collaborating. Use your connections across your economic ecosystem to help identify industry partners who can contribute (monetary, work-based learning assistance, etc.).
- Come to the table with ideas. Be willing to listen to ideas of others.
- Look for common ground that can help you develop a plan.
- Do evaluate proven models, such as the Swiss Apprenticeship system that seek alignment between education and employment.
- Do identify virtual work-based learning experiences that are flexible and offer access to future employment.
- Do find partners who can deliver online learning platforms that track activity, hours, and progress.
- Do think about scale and how this project can be scaled up for multiple participants or year-round learning.
- Do reach out to local school systems to see how goals can be leveraged.
Don’t:
- Don’t assume funding streams can all be used in the same way. Creative thinking and problem-solving may be needed to identify which program components each funding stream can support and how to ensure documentation requirements are met
Resources:
Case Study #2
DTE Energy “Work From Anywhere” Toolkit and Summer Youth Internship Program, Detroit, MI
Program Overview:
- Training stipend of $15/hr
- Up to $450 per week
- Up to 10,000 residents by September 2021
- Anticipate 80% receiving wraparound support
DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) is a Detroit-based diversified energy company serving more than 3 million electric and natural gas customers in Michigan. Since 2017, DTE has worked directly with the city of Detroit on a variety of workforce and talent development efforts that align with the company’s aspirations to be a “Force for Growth” and promote prosperity in the communities where DTE’s 10,000- plus employees live and serve.
This includes projects that move the organization closer to achieving DTE’s “Employment and Education” goals including:
- Closing the digital divide impacting Detroit schoolchildren
- Providing FIRST Robotics sponsorships
- Hosting and participating in workshops and educational programs
- Providing training and work-based experiences that include internships and cooperatives
DTE believes internships offer a win-win opportunity for the company to share knowledge with the next generation of leaders and position youth for future success in a learning environment that also fills DTE’s talent pipeline with motivated, prepared candidates.
As a result of this commitment, DTE traditionally employs or sponsors 1,500 students annually: 850 interns on-site and 650 students through the DTE Energy Foundation that are supported through programs such as Grow Detroit Young Talent (GYDT), a summer program that serves 8,000 youth.
In early 2020, when it was clear the COVID-19 pandemic would greatly impact its summer intern programs, DTE leaders knew they needed to find a way to sustain these opportunities for students. DTE leaders formed an emergency planning team comprising experts who had worked together to tackle big workforce and talent challenges for more than three years.
A key partner in this effort was the Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC), the City of Detroit’s workforce agency and one of 16 Michigan Works! agencies statewide. The team met weekly to transition its on-site internship approach into a full virtual program. Team members knew converting internship programs to a virtual or “work from anywhere” office needed to include new and creative ways to complete meaningful work, collaborate with leaders and co-workers, and stay socially connected without meeting in person.
As a result of these efforts, DTE reimagined the structure of its programs, and provided a corporate contribution in March 2020 of $1,000,000 for stipends for their career pathway interns, and the deployment of virtual work experience platforms. DTE’s Workforce Development team also developed a Work From Anywhere Toolkit to aid other companies moving to virtual internships. In the summer of 2020, DTE served more than 500 interns, including 86 high school students. Stipends for high school students ranged from $11 to $13 per hour during a six-week experience with engaging activities and training designed to build employability skills.
Youth virtually connected with mentors daily and had opportunities to connect with their peers the same way. They also engaged with two web-based platforms as part of their internship program: 1) Educational Data Systems, Inc. (EDSI) provided a variety of virtual instructor-led training specific to the energy industry, using a project-based approach through cohorts of students to provide practical application of skills; and 2) Virtual Job Shadow provided career exploration opportunities.
Key Partnerships:
- DTE Energy provided internal in-kind support from across the company to ensure the success and sustainability of the program.
- Multiple business units worked to develop the toolkit, provide IT hardware and support, and mentor and engage youth throughout their internships.
- Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT) is a citywide summer jobs program that trains and employs young adults between the ages of 14 and 24 for up to 120 hours.
- Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC) is the City of Detroit’s workforce agency and reports to the Mayor’s Workforce Development Board, which was established by the Mayor of Detroit. DESC is also the lead agency for Detroit at Work, which provides job placement, search, training, career advisement and other supportive services to tens of thousands of Detroiters every year. DESC was instrumental in the redesign of the program.
Funding:
DTE and the DTE Foundation provided extensive financial and in-kind resources to support the Summer Youth Internship Program and a corresponding toolkit:
- The toolkit was funded through in-kind and repurposed DTE corporate funds and developed in partnership with several DTE business units.
- The DTE IT department set up a mobile laptop and hotspot assignment and support center to ensure all summer interns could successfully access virtual opportunities.
- The DTE Foundation provides $600,000 every year to fund program operations and student stipends for career pathway interns that work at companies across the region and are registered with Grow Detroit’s Young Talent.
- DTE dedicates two full-time employees to run its high school intern program; other staff helped as needed to support the transition to a virtual design. During the six-week program, four employees dedicated approximately 25% of their time to support the program.
- DTE provided funding to GDYT at the end of 2019 to support the purchase of the Educational Data Systems, Inc. (EDSI) and Virtual Job Shadow platforms used for the internship program.
Key Challenges:
Virtual connections pose challenges to initial relationship building.
In the beginning, students took a bit longer to feel comfortable connecting with their mentors and DTE staff. DTE’s Workforce Development team worked to develop engaging programming with interactive segments each day including Motivational Mondays, TikTok Tuesdays, Wellness Wednesdays, and Interactive Thursdays. Mentors and staff also checked in with each student twice daily to build rapport with the students.
Virtual programs still need to help interns develop professional skills, while simultaneously introducing them to the workforce.
Interns need structure that supports both needs, so the program was designed with virtual work, virtual job shadowing, career awareness, essential skills training, mentorship, and networking components in mind.
- 67% of the program focused on work within assigned business units
– Job-specific work exposure
– Virtual mentors
– Capstone project - 33% of the program focused on career development
– Office and skilled trades training
– Motivational speakers
– Virtual tours
Students’ home environments may not be ideal for a virtual internship approach
The program recognizes that students may join from challenging remote work environments or homes that are not ideally suited for remote work. Specific challenges included lack of air conditioning; a private, quiet place to work; and or home environments where students were uncomfortable sharing on camera. Purchasing virtual backgrounds for students can help students feel comfortable to turn on their camera while at home. Program mentors and leaders recognized this, focused on wellness of the student and worked to maintain engagement with students through daily check-ins and interactive programming in spite of these challenges.
Summary of Project Impact
DTE reports the following outcomes:
- 95% of the 500 youth transitioned to virtual operations
- 86 high school students (16–18 years old) served
– 100% transitioned to a virtual internship
– 80% completion rate
– 300+ hours volunteered by mentors
DTE is committed to continuous improvement and asked all 500 students to complete surveys at the beginning and the end of the program. Of youth who participated:
- 83% found it easy/very easy to transition to virtual work
- 96% agreed/strongly agreed they developed meaningful connections
- 81% rated their workgroups as highly or generally available and responsive and their leaders at 71%
- 81% reported an excellent experience with their mentor
- 60% prefer combination of virtual and on-site work
- 24% prefer on-site work
- 14% prefer virtual
- 88% said the program fully met expectations or exceeded expectations
DTE expects that next year will see a hybrid approach and intends to use the feedback and data collected to improve the program and prepare for next year.
Adapt This Approach:
DTE developed a detailed 31-page toolkit as a resource to help other organizations create a successful and efficient virtual internship program. The following map was developed by DTE to outline the development process:
Cost and Time Commitments
DTE and the DTE Foundation provided extensive financial and in-kind resources to reimagine its Summer Youth Internship Program and develop the corresponding toolkit. Additionally, DTE’s ability to leverage the expertise of multiple divisions (IT, HR, Communications, etc.) within its own company contributed greatly to its success.
For companies interested in duplicating this model, the time and resources required will depend on a variety of factors including:
- Existing internship program or experience with providing internships as part of a city-run program
- Commitment and support from company (both financial and in-kind)
- Relationships and coordination with external partners
- Availability of funding
- Availability of staff to design, implement, and run the program as well as serve as mentors.
Do:
- Do consider the high level of internal/in-kind resources that need to be committed both to organize the virtual internship program and mentor participants. The number of internships offered can be scaled, though, to match the available stipend and in-kind resources.
- Do leverage the internal planning skills of your organization. DTE specifically capitalized on its internal consulting and planning skill set to redesign its programs.
- Do look for ways to strategically partner with external organizations, identify areas where your missions align and engage leaders with a passion for outcomes. DTE was highly engaged with its local workforce agency and tapped into the experience of that organization and other non-profits.
- Do communicate regularly with leadership and partners. Maintaining constant communication is important to ensure everyone is on the same page and working effectively and efficiently.
- Do identify one or two big companies to guide/drive your city’s broader summer youth program, then ask the city’s leaders to bring in other companies for additional support. Include corporate giving and tax incentives in your “what’s in it for me” message.
- Do use a competitive procurement process to identify vendors. Even if it is a fast process, this is valuable for ensuring that you buy a competitively priced product or service.
- Do ensure your programming is developmentally appropriate. Youth can’t sit in front of a computer all day and stay engaged! Do remember “purpose” is more important than “process.” Be flexible and don’t let procedural issues become barriers to success.
- Do expand your network of partners to the state and national levels. This provides opportunities to share your good work and also learn new approaches and strategies from other parts of the state and nation. DTE, specifically, is involved with the Michigan Energy Workforce Development Consortium, the Center for Energy Workforce Development, the Michigan State Department of Education and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
- Do ensure you are focused on your company’s internship hiring timeline and discuss with your partners well in advance of the timing needed to source students. It can be overly burdensome or difficult to align your internal processes with external deadlines so it’s important to closely evaluate timelines and collaborate/adjust as needed.
Don’t:
- Don’t expect 100% student completion. Some students face challenging personal situations and home environments, and some will experience unexpected situations, e.g., needing to complete summer school due to pandemic-related disruptions in the spring, and may also have more than one job.
Learn more about the Workforce Tactical Guide
COVID-19 Economic Response and Recovery
Engage major employers with the human and financial resources available for summer employment opportunities.
Ways to Help Youth Prepare to Enter the Labor Market
Background:
In light of social distancing and COVID-19 regulations, many summer youth programs were canceled and year-round programs significantly curtailed. These programs, however, are critical for underserved populations, both financially and as a means of providing youth with opportunities to develop skills and exposure to careers.
Youth overall have been gravely impacted by unemployment due to COVID-19, with rates generally higher in 2020 than during and after the Great Recession. Minority youth have experienced the greatest impact from unemployment, and youth generally have been disproportionately represented in job losses in industries such as food service, recreation, and hospitality.
Given the importance of youth employment, both for financial reasons and to ensuring exposure to the world of work, this toolkit highlights two programs that successfully pivoted to a virtual approach. Successful elements of both programs, to varying degrees, include:
Each example, to varying degrees, includes the following essential elements:
Major employers are key.
In both the Charlotte Mayor’s Youth Employment Program (MYEP) and the DTE Energy Summer Youth Internship Program (SYIP) examples, major employers (both large and growing) played major roles in the success of their respective programs. Due to their size, they are able to dedicate the human resources, and in some cases the financial resources, to providing summer employment opportunities for youth.
Commitment to growing talent for industries that are high-demand locally.
The MYEP and SYIP both focus on industries that are growing locally. The SYIP includes a focus on specifically growing the energy talent pipeline to ensure it has an ongoing supply of talent, while the MYEP program is focused on exposing youth to local opportunities in the city’s target industries as a talent development strategy and a workforce retention tool.
Robust partnerships improved program funding and programming.
The MYEP was closely connected to the secondary school system — both for funding and for access to teacher mentors — and the SYIP program had close partnerships with the local public workforce system and a youth-focused non-profit. These partnerships enhanced both programs’ ability to pivot quickly from an in-person to a virtual approach.
Leveraged virtual technology platforms and software to deliver engaging, relevant content.
In both examples, the lead organization procured one or more third parties to provide or develop content to use in their virtual internship program. MYEP’s solution was totally customized, while SYIP’s was more “off the shelf,” but in both cases, the use of a blended approach — engagement in a web-based program plus employer-specific activities — allowed the programs to provide a rich, diverse experience.
Case Study #1
Mayor’s Youth Employment Program (MYEP), Charlotte, NC
Program Overview:
- July 6–August 7
- Mondays–Thursdays from 9:30–2:30
- 315 Participants
- 20 Team Leads
- Teams of 4–5
- $900 Scholarship
The Mayor’s Youth Employment Program has been connecting youth in Charlotte with local employers since 1986 with a focus on leveraging relationships with businesses and the community to provide meaningful, career-oriented internships for youth. While MYEP had traditionally provided in-person experiences, it was clear early in 2020 that in-person internships were not an option for the over 500 students enrolled in the program.
In March, the City of Charlotte’s MYEP team began reimagining what a virtual internship might look like. Through a connection with the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council (CELC), the team contracted with Radius Learning, a company that develops workbased education pathways with the private sector and academic institutions. They immediately began to re-engineer the MYEP’s summer experience and were quickly joined by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) and LinkedIn Learning in the effort to identify and secure funding, human capital resources, and learning assets.
Over a period of weeks, the aforementioned partners, also known as the MYEP Virtual Pathways Team, collaborated with leading employers in the region to develop five virtual pathways:
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Business & Finance
- Technology
- Innovation
- Healthcare
Charlotte employers shared learning and development content and information on their skills profiles, which Radius then incorporated into five week pathway experiences for MYEP participants. Each pathway included 100 hours of skills-based tasks simulating future jobs and was aligned with an overall project related to a real-world challenge in the community. The MYEP Virtual Pathways Team worked to design experiences so youth felt like they had a job, rather than watching someone else do a job, in order to create buy-in and opportunities for growth. They also were intentional about designing work-based learning activities through which participants would experience success and have a sense of contributing towards the greater good.
Virtual pathways consisted of:
- Skills development provided in partnership with Radius Learning and LinkedIn Learning
- Work-based adventures to expose participants to the tasks they will face in future roles
- Coaching sessions with team leads from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
- Industry interactive sessions with representatives from local employers
- Life skills sessions focused on developing confidence and professional habits
The design of each pathway included Radius Learning’s 360° Future Skills Fundamentals framework that focuses on the changing skills needed for the next generation of work. Key skill areas include organizational, socioemotional, rational, technological and entrepreneurial. The pathways and the platform were built by Radius Learning in about 90 days
Key Partnerships:
- City of Charlotte Youth Programs administers the program and is one of the funders.
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) CTE provided Perkins funding for 20 Career and Technical Education teachers to mentor youth through the process.
- The curriculum was developed and provided by Radius Learning and LinkedIn Learning.
- Radius Learning built the platform.
- Industry partners included Bank of America, Atrium Healthcare, Siemens, Accenture, Sealed Air, Rare Roots Hospitality, Red Ventures, Balfour Beatty Construction, Corsan, LS3P, Beacon Partners, Cardinal Innovations Healthcare, Project 658, Messer.
- Although the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council did not provide funding for the project, the organization advocated on behalf of the MYEP, which was very helpful.
Funding:
The total budget of the MYEP program was approximately $474,680 (not including six staff members). Of that, business partners donated approximately $277,280 for student scholarships. The virtual platform (developed by Radius) cost $100,000 of which $72,590 was paid by the City and $27,140 was paid by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Key Challenges:
Leveraging funding streams to pay students.
One challenge identified by the MYEP team was determining how to utilize the various funding streams available to provide monetary compensation to students. The city revised its vendor requirements to allow students to receive scholarships at the end of the program. Youth were classified as “program participants” and staff provided hours completion documentation to the city’s Human Resources Department. An additional 100 students were funded through CMS and turned in weekly timesheets.
Access to technology and the Internet.
The city leveraged federal Perkins funding provided through CMS and corporate donations to ensure all participating youth had access to a Chromebook and hotspot. MYEP provided hotspots to students who were not enrolled in CMS. Although Chromebook limitations caused some students to experience technical issues when accessing the learning platform, the close relationship with Radius Learning allowed the City of Charlotte and CMS to real-time troubleshoot issues for students. Platform developers now have working knowledge of Chromebook limitations and can develop future content that will work with all available equipment provided to the students.
Summary of Project Impact
- 50-plus professionals engaged with youth
- 291 youth earned certificates provided by top employers.
- Youth in the program:
– Developed new financial technologies with Bank of America
– Reimagined the city’s infrastructure with Siemens
– Expanded healthcare access with Atrium
– Developed sustainable innovations with Sealed Air
– Designed platforms to support small businesses with Accenture
Adapt This Approach:
Steps to Success – Step 3
Step 3a: Employer Partnerships
- Sign up employers for 3–5 tracks.
- Develop concepts for 5 tracks.
- Share track concepts with prospective industry partners.
- Scope engagement with executives at prospective employers. Executives communicate hiring challenges and future talent needs.
- Present employers with custom track concepts resulting from scoping sessions.
- Sign up 3–5 employers to lead tracks.
- Engage employer in scoping pathways
- Executive assigns a liaison/champion for pathway success.
- Managers share sample tasks and job assignments for target occupations.
- HR shares hiring assessments and candidate criteria.
- Develop pathway and submit concepts for review and collaborative editing with employer.
- Employer sets target outcomes (ideal number of students, potential hiring commitments) for success.
- Employer approves pathway
- Schedule employer volunteers to engage with youth.
- Managers upload videos, write welcome messages, and provide introductory letters for each pathway stage.
- Assign managers to coach/engage with student teams at structured touchpoints throughout the program.
- Develop and provide for employer review a schedule of programmed interactions for employees engaged in the delivery of pathway program.
- Schedule 2–3 webinars with SMEs from the company.
Step 3b: Learning and Experience Design
- Develop pathway blueprints
- Develop learning design architecture and refine with team.
- Collaborate with school CTE program to define conditions for student success and scope pathway skills for beginner skill level.
- Develop blueprint for the required number of hours, outlining authentic work-based tasks to be completed at each stage.
- Based on employer feedback, adapt pathway for each track.
- Develop pathway for each track
- Define separate assignments and work-based learning tasks for each track based on employer feedback.
- Build in LinkedIn Learning paths to provide interactive content for each track.
- Demo a day in the life of a youth participant to partners and refine based on feedback.
- Submit pathways to partners and employers for collaborative review.
- Demo student experience
- Present experience to select youth participants and get feedback. Refine.
- Build assessment systems for managers to provide feedback to students at key stages.
- Schedule interactions between students and managers to align with pathway content.
- Demo pathways to partners as time allows prior to program launch.
Step 3c: Digital Design and Development
- Build pathways with interactive platform
- Define essential features for each track.
- Test features on platform.
- Scope virtual experience and interactive elements.
- Demo and launch virtual pathways.
- Upload each pathway onto the platform and demo to partners. Test IT infrastructure.
- License team subscriptions for tools to assign to students.
- Launch virtual pathways for students to access.
Step 3d: Pathway Delivery Plan
- Schedule pathway programming and delivery.
- Schedule the complete set of interactions between students, industry partners, and volunteers.
- Work with partners to define conditions for a successful experience for each stakeholder.
- Develop, refine, approve pathway management (outcomes strategy) plan.
Cost and Time Commitments:
The MYEP team was able to reimagine this program within 90 days due in large part to their partnerships with CMS and major employers in the region as well as its ability to rapidly procure the services of a learning technology partner.
Additionally, because this was a city-run program, the City of Charlotte Youth Programs staff were able to bring to bear their own staff time to redesign the program. For cities interested in duplicating this model, the time and resources required will depend on a variety of factors including:
- Existing relationships and coordination with partners and employers
- Ability to leverage third party vendors to quickly design and develop programming and/or other needed program elements
- Availability of staff to redesign the program
- Funding flexibility. Although Charlotte was able to pull this off in 90 days, MYEP leadership noted that additional planning time would have benefited their model and likely allowed for the inclusion of additional pathways and participants.
Do:
Act early:
- Begin to reimagine how to provide services via an asset-based approach.
- Identify elements and infrastructure currently available to your program.
- Think about what additional elements, infrastructure, and technology would be nice to have (virtual learning platform, funding for stipends, additional staff support, alignment with in-demand industry sectors, etc.).
- Identify partners with similar missions and initiatives who may be interested in collaborating. Use your connections across your economic ecosystem to help identify industry partners who can contribute (monetary, work-based learning assistance, etc.).
- Come to the table with ideas. Be willing to listen to ideas of others.
- Look for common ground that can help you develop a plan.
- Do evaluate proven models, such as the Swiss Apprenticeship system that seek alignment between education and employment.
- Do identify virtual work-based learning experiences that are flexible and offer access to future employment.
- Do find partners who can deliver online learning platforms that track activity, hours, and progress.
- Do think about scale and how this project can be scaled up for multiple participants or year-round learning.
- Do reach out to local school systems to see how goals can be leveraged.
Don’t:
- Don’t assume funding streams can all be used in the same way.
Creative thinking and problem-solving may be needed to identify which program components each funding stream can support and how to ensure documentation requirements are met
Resources:
Case Study #2
DTE Energy “Work From Anywhere” Toolkit and Summer Youth Internship Program, Detroit, MI
Program Overview:
- Training stipend of $15/hr
- Up to $450 per week
- Up to 10,000 residents by September 2021
- Anticipate 80% receiving wraparound support
DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) is a Detroit-based diversified energy company serving more than 3 million electric and natural gas customers in Michigan. Since 2017, DTE has worked directly with the city of Detroit on a variety of workforce and talent development efforts that align with the company’s aspirations to be a “Force for Growth” and promote prosperity in the communities where DTE’s 10,000- plus employees live and serve.
This includes projects that move the organization closer to achieving DTE’s “Employment and Education” goals including:
- Closing the digital divide impacting Detroit schoolchildren
- Providing FIRST Robotics sponsorships
- Hosting and participating in workshops and educational programs
- Providing training and work-based experiences that include internships and cooperatives
DTE believes internships offer a win-win opportunity for the company to share knowledge with the next generation of leaders and position youth for future success in a learning environment that also fills DTE’s talent pipeline with motivated, prepared candidates.
As a result of this commitment, DTE traditionally employs or sponsors 1,500 students annually: 850 interns on-site and 650 students through the DTE Energy Foundation that are supported through programs such as Grow Detroit Young Talent (GYDT), a summer program that serves 8,000 youth.
In early 2020, when it was clear the COVID-19 pandemic would greatly impact its summer intern programs, DTE leaders knew they needed to find a way to sustain these opportunities for students. DTE leaders formed an emergency planning team comprising experts who had worked together to tackle big workforce and talent challenges for more than three years.
A key partner in this effort was the Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC), the City of Detroit’s workforce agency and one of 16 Michigan Works! agencies statewide. The team met weekly to transition its on-site internship approach into a full virtual program. Team members knew converting internship programs to a virtual or “work from anywhere” office needed to include new and creative ways to complete meaningful work, collaborate with leaders and co-workers, and stay socially connected without meeting in person.
As a result of these efforts, DTE reimagined the structure of its programs, and provided a corporate contribution in March 2020 of $1,000,000 for stipends for their career pathway interns, and the deployment of virtual work experience platforms. DTE’s Workforce Development team also developed a Work From Anywhere Toolkit to aid other companies moving to virtual internships. In the summer of 2020, DTE served more than 500 interns, including 86 high school students. Stipends for high school students ranged from $11 to $13 per hour during a six-week experience with engaging activities and training designed to build employability skills.
Youth virtually connected with mentors daily and had opportunities to connect with their peers the same way. They also engaged with two web-based platforms as part of their internship program: 1) Educational Data Systems, Inc. (EDSI) provided a variety of virtual instructor-led training specific to the energy industry, using a project-based approach through cohorts of students to provide practical application of skills; and 2) Virtual Job Shadow provided career exploration opportunities.
Key Partnerships:
- DTE Energy provided internal in-kind support from across the company to ensure the success and sustainability of the program.
- Multiple business units worked to develop the toolkit, provide IT hardware and support, and mentor and engage youth throughout their internships.
- Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT) is a citywide summer jobs program that trains and employs young adults between the ages of 14 and 24 for up to 120 hours.
- Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC) is the City of Detroit’s workforce agency and reports to the Mayor’s Workforce Development Board, which was established by the Mayor of Detroit. DESC is also the lead agency for Detroit at Work, which provides job placement, search, training, career advisement and other supportive services to tens of thousands of Detroiters every year. DESC was instrumental in the redesign of the program.
Funding:
DTE and the DTE Foundation provided extensive financial and in-kind resources to support the Summer Youth Internship Program and a corresponding toolkit:
- The toolkit was funded through in-kind and repurposed DTE corporate funds and developed in partnership with several DTE business units.
- The DTE IT department set up a mobile laptop and hotspot assignment and support center to ensure all summer interns could successfully access virtual opportunities.
- The DTE Foundation provides $600,000 every year to fund program operations and student stipends for career pathway interns that work at companies across the region and are registered with Grow Detroit’s Young Talent.
- DTE dedicates two full-time employees to run its high school intern program; other staff helped as needed to support the transition to a virtual design. During the six-week program, four employees dedicated approximately 25% of their time to support the program.
- DTE provided funding to GDYT at the end of 2019 to support the purchase of the Educational Data Systems, Inc. (EDSI) and Virtual Job Shadow platforms used for the internship program.
Key Challenges:
Virtual connections pose challenges to initial relationship building.
In the beginning, students took a bit longer to feel comfortable connecting with their mentors and DTE staff. DTE’s Workforce Development team worked to develop engaging programming with interactive segments each day including Motivational Mondays, TikTok Tuesdays, Wellness Wednesdays, and Interactive Thursdays. Mentors and staff also checked in with each student twice daily to build rapport with the students.
Virtual programs still need to help interns develop professional skills, while simultaneously introducing them to the workforce.
Interns need structure that supports both needs, so the program was designed with virtual work, virtual job shadowing, career awareness, essential skills training, mentorship, and networking components in mind.
- 67% of the program focused on work within assigned business units
– Job-specific work exposure
– Virtual mentors
– Capstone project - 33% of the program focused on career development
– Office and skilled trades training
– Motivational speakers
– Virtual tours
Students’ home environments may not be ideal for a virtual internship approach
The program recognizes that students may join from challenging remote work environments or homes that are not ideally suited for remote work. Specific challenges included lack of air conditioning; a private, quiet place to work; and or home environments where students were uncomfortable sharing on camera. Purchasing virtual backgrounds for students can help students feel comfortable to turn on their camera while at home. Program mentors and leaders recognized this, focused on wellness of the student and worked to maintain engagement with students through daily check-ins and interactive programming in spite of these challenges.
Summary of Project Impact
DTE reports the following outcomes:
- 95% of the 500 youth transitioned to virtual operations
- 86 high school students (16–18 years old) served
– 100% transitioned to a virtual internship
– 80% completion rate
– 300+ hours volunteered by mentors
DTE is committed to continuous improvement and asked all 500 students to complete surveys at the beginning and the end of the program. Of youth who participated:
- 83% found it easy/very easy to transition to virtual work
- 96% agreed/strongly agreed they developed meaningful connections
- 81% rated their workgroups as highly or generally available and responsive and their leaders at 71%
- 81% reported an excellent experience with their mentor
- 60% prefer combination of virtual and on-site work
- 24% prefer on-site work
- 14% prefer virtual
- 88% said the program fully met expectations or exceeded expectations
DTE expects that next year will see a hybrid approach and intends to use the feedback and data collected to improve the program and prepare for next year.
Adapt This Approach:
DTE developed a detailed 31-page toolkit as a resource to help other organizations create a successful and efficient virtual internship program. The following map was developed by DTE to outline the development process:
Cost and Time Commitments:
DTE and the DTE Foundation provided extensive financial and in-kind resources to reimagine its Summer Youth Internship Program and develop the corresponding toolkit. Additionally, DTE’s ability to leverage the expertise of multiple divisions (IT, HR, Communications, etc.) within its own company contributed greatly to its success.
For companies interested in duplicating this model, the time and resources required will depend on a variety of factors including:
- Existing internship program or experience with providing internships as part of a city-run program
- Commitment and support from company (both financial and in-kind)
- Relationships and coordination with external partners
- Availability of funding
- Availability of staff to design, implement, and run the program as well as serve as mentors.
Do:
- Do consider the high level of internal/in-kind resources that need to be committed both to organize the virtual internship program and mentor participants. The number of internships offered can be scaled, though, to match the available stipend and in-kind resources.
- Do leverage the internal planning skills of your organization. DTE specifically capitalized on its internal consulting and planning skill set to redesign its programs.
- Do look for ways to strategically partner with external organizations, identify areas where your missions align and engage leaders with a passion for outcomes. DTE was highly engaged with its local workforce agency and tapped into the experience of that organization and other non-profits.
- Do communicate regularly with leadership and partners. Maintaining constant communication is important to ensure everyone is on the same page and working effectively and efficiently.
- Do identify one or two big companies to guide/drive your city’s broader summer youth program, then ask the city’s leaders to bring in other companies for additional support. Include corporate giving and tax incentives in your “what’s in it for me” message.
- Do use a competitive procurement process to identify vendors. Even if it is a fast process, this is valuable for ensuring that you buy a competitively priced product or service.
- Do ensure your programming is developmentally appropriate. Youth can’t sit in front of a computer all day and stay engaged! Do remember “purpose” is more important than “process.” Be flexible and don’t let procedural issues become barriers to success.
- Do expand your network of partners to the state and national levels. This provides opportunities to share your good work and also learn new approaches and strategies from other parts of the state and nation. DTE, specifically, is involved with the Michigan Energy Workforce Development Consortium, the Center for Energy Workforce Development, the Michigan State Department of Education and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
- Do ensure you are focused on your company’s internship hiring timeline and discuss with your partners well in advance of the timing needed to source students. It can be overly burdensome or difficult to align your internal processes with external deadlines so it’s important to closely evaluate timelines and collaborate/adjust as needed.
Don’t:
- Don’t expect 100% student completion. Some students face challenging personal situations and home environments, and some will experience unexpected situations, e.g., needing to complete summer school due to pandemic-related disruptions in the spring, and may also have more than one job.
Learn more about Workforce Tactical Guide