Bridging the Gap Between School and Work
Supporting career internships has long been at the heart of The Pinkerton Foundation’s mission to help level the playing field for young New Yorkers.
After all, internships build self-confidence, workplace skills, and personal networks as well as an appreciation for time management, teamwork and communication. Anyone who doubts their importance need only watch well-to-do parents scramble to find—and often pay for—early work experiences for their teenagers. To provide this first step on the career ladder to those who need it most, Pinkerton sup- ports high-quality workplace internships—all either paid or offering academic credit—to 5,000 young New Yorkers from disadvantaged backgrounds each year.
Dear Pinkerton Foundation,
Thank you for this thought provoking piece. I am interested in this subject because I am working on a book about Berea College, one of nine federally recognized labor colleges. You engaged the right person to explore these issues as Lucy Friedman knows how to ask the right questions and shape effective strategies. I found much to applaud in her paper. I do have a couple of comments:
1) For starters build on what works. Those nine examples represent an array of interesting approaches and could be grown and evaluated as a group.
2) Maybe because of Berea but I feel strongly that there is great value in work of any kind as long as the expectations are clear and high standards set. I think framing this as career connected runs into trouble. There are examples, of course, between industries and schools, but to aim this big one, I believe, needs to embrace a different set of values.
3) Increase city placements and beef up SYEP.’cuz kids need the pay, but Steps One and Two could be wonderfully helpful, if shaped creatively, even without Three.
4) Engage the unions all along the way.
5) Businesses might be interested in social justice, but their greater interest, I believe, will be in easy access to a ready workforce.
6) CUF knows alot about workforce development programs. Dont make the same mistakes.
7) Kids dont even have to take financial literacy or economics to graduate…
8) Maybe a next step would be to see how effective the Career Lab courses are…
9) Don’t forget BIDs as possible placements…
Thanks for tackling this…and good luck.
Hi Dr. Friedman and Pinkerton,
Bridging the gap is such a timely paper! I have been thinking about all of these issues in relationship to my students, partnerships, and career development program at Central Park East High School. We have Tier 1 tackled, are struggling with keeping our Tier 3 program together which is in its infancy, and need to work on a comprehensive Tier 2 implementation. Would love to discuss…