A ten-week summer employment and mentorship program, Summer18 pairs local businesses with Jackson County youth (ages 16-24) to provide on-the-job training that sets the stage for life-long careers, opens doors to new industries, and provides mentorship critical to building professional networks.
“Summer18 is an opportunity to have significant impact in our communities”, said Shamar Herron, Deputy Director, Michigan Works! Southeast. “This is something that our young adults dream and talk about and our employers can afford them this high impact opportunity. The investment is critical to developing our young adults. As a community, we have to do a better job explaining to our future workforce the importance of career stability.”
We have multiple municipalities already signed up to participate. Our goal is to diversify the employment opportunities for our youth. We are looking for employer representation from multiple industries and investors, especially from the private sector. By participating in Summer18, it provides businesses with the opportunity for growth to show what future generation see as a viable workplace.
This is our 3rd year with this program in Washtenaw County. We are in dire need of our business community support. We have more than 30 placements for our youth that need employer commitment from our business partners by the middle of this month.
Jim Coutu, Business Services Manager for Michigan Works! Southeast said, “Local employers have identified that finding qualified talent is a major concern. Participating with Summer18 should be a strategy that businesses should use to develop our local talent pipeline. Gaining access to qualified talent does not happen overnight. We need to engage our youth through community and mentorship opportunities by connecting and educating everyone about the great opportunities we have in Jackson County.”
To learn more information, or to register your business, visit https://sites.google.com/view/domoresummer2017/ .