YouthWorks summer session has begun, with most interns scheduled to report to their first day of work on June 21.
Thanks to generous departmental funding, this summer we were able to hire 160 new interns to fill summer internship slots. Youth will be placed in 36 departments throughout city government, where they will have 7-weeks of work experience learning transferable job skills such as workplace communication, time management, and teamwork.
We received almost 500 applications for our 2010 summer program, and the task of selecting participants from this qualified pool was very difficult. One of our primary goals was to select a diverse group of participants who represent schools and communities throughout San Francisco. Due to a partnership with SFUSD’s Career Technical Education programs, another priority was to provide internships to 11th graders who participate in a career academy at their school.
For this summer’s session, we plan to expand the career exposure opportunities available to participants. In addition to real work experience in city government, interns will also participate in various career exposure activities that highlight different city careers. Activities highlighting the fields of health, finance, engineering, IT, law and politics / leadership will be offered to youth based on their interests. We hope to spark youth interest in public service careers by introducing them to the variety of employment opportunities available in city government.