Youth apprenticeships offer students unique opportunities to explore future careers. With so many paths the next generation can take, these opportunities provide students more certainty and clarity about their career goals.
Educators, career services advocates and parents all play influential roles in helping the next generation. With these resources, you can assist students in obtaining apprenticeships and internships.
Career readiness has been a major topic of contention among stakeholders. Unfortunately, students have low confidence in their career readiness. In fact, a survey of 500 recent high school graduates revealed that 75% of them feel they aren’t ready to make career decisions. Employers also have concerns, with 40% of business leaders agreeing that recent college graduates are unprepared to join the workforce.
Youth apprenticeships and experiential internships can resolve these disconnects for students and their future employers. However, traditional internship frameworks need a refresh to ensure equitable opportunities and greater access to career exploration.
pepelwerk CEO Kim Kelley recently shared how the company is reinventing career exploration on a bonus episode of the podcast Apprenticeship 2.0, “Celebrating Youth Apprenticeship Week.” In it, she said, “Our job is to help you figure out and refine your job goal. Our programs prepare people for the future of work.”
Kelley explained how pepelwerk does this with multiple options: “Students can match with mentors in their job goals in skills-based professions, from plumbers to software engineers. There are also observation internships where people can watch the work related to their goal job.”
Students seeking youth apprenticeships or internships can find support in school career centers. These programs often have established relationships with local businesses and organizations like pepelwerk.
Many career centers use pepelwerk to modernize and optimize youth apprenticeship programs. Key features that support these programs include:
Many students look to traditional job boards to find youth apprenticeships. However, this approach relies on standard resumes and application processes and doesn’t allow students to convey their true value and potential.
pepelwerk’s AI Career Assistant outperforms conventional job boards by using advanced algorithms to match students with relevant youth apprenticeships, personalizing the career journey. It enables students to identify their skills, interests and career goals and matches them with available internships based on the provided information.
This new experience revolutionizes the tired job-board format, opening up more possibilities for students, employers and stakeholders and leading to a better-prepared workforce.
Students can explore and discover in-demand jobs across the workforce, including “new” jobs created by technological innovations. Educators and career services professionals can leverage the pepelwerk platform to ensure students have exposure to the evolving world of work.
Career Exploration Events enable students to participate in virtual sessions and gain exposure to various in-demand, skills-based jobs from hiring companies. These sessions can be the beginning of valuable connections to youth apprenticeship or experiential internship opportunities.
These events also provide students with a proper understanding of specific roles. If they discover that a particular role is the right fit for them, you can work together to build a plan that will allow them to gain the knowledge and skills they need to pursue their desired career.
Learning should be lifelong, and pepelwerk facilitates that with in-demand courses. Access to these courses empowers students to refine their capabilities and develop skills aligned with their career goals.
Additionally, the platform offers the Real World of Work program. This program allows students to take online courses, access personal career coaching, find internships and gain hands-on job experience through virtual reality (VR) technology. Teachers and parents can introduce the Real World of Work to students.
Youth apprenticeship opportunities allow students to improve their career readiness, build necessary skills and set essential goals.
Learn more about the pepelwerk approach to apprenticeships by listening to the “Celebrating Youth Apprenticeship” podcast episode with Kim Kelley.
To start using pepelwerk for students, create your account.