Many businesses are finding it more and more difficult to find qualified workers. 

 

While young people are finding it difficult to find good jobs because of their lack of experience.

 

Central Minnesota Jobs & Training Services (CMJTS) is helping businesses and youth make that connection. 

 

“We prepare young and emerging adults who have barriers to success with the training and educational opportunities they need,” says Eric Day, CMJTS youth program manager, “as well as individualized case management so they can achieve satisfying and family-sustaining employment.”

 

Day says some of those barriers include health, mental and learning disabilities, youth with juvenile offenses and some who are in the foster care system.

 

“We also see a lot of young parents and a lot of young people who just don’t have the tools to be successful in a classroom setting,” he says.

 

To get started, every youth goes through an assessment process that includes a basic literacy and numeracy assessment to determine their reading and math skills.

 

“We also do an assessment to find out where their career aptitude is - where their strengths are, what their interests are and what their work values are,” says Day, “so we can help them discover different careers that align with that aptitude. We want young people to find careers where they will find job satisfaction.”

 

Youth also receive individualized case management to develop work readiness skills.

 

“We want to make sure that every young person knows how to show up for work every day on time, ready to work as a team with their phone put away,” 

Once they have work skills, youth receive actual work experience. CMJTS places them with a business or local agency so they become a paid employee. 

 

“We’re taking a young person who has absolutely no job experience at all and were showing them how to have a job,” says Day. “We hire them and place them. The business or local agency gets an extra set of hands, they provide some supervision on site and  they benefit from the employment specialist who provides some additional coaching and problem solvings when needed.”

 

Day says it’s for a young person to gain some experience and it’s a good reference for future employment. 

 

CMJTS also offers on-the-job training (OJT) for those who can’t afford a part time job. 

 

“Maybe they’re supporting children of their own and they know they need to bring in an income soon,” says Day. “OJT is a great opportunity for them because they can move immediately into full time employment as soon as they establish that they have some of those baseline skills.”

 

CMJTS’s Career Jumpstart Program helps youth explore careers by providing funds for short-term training.

 

“We only provide that assistance if the young person is going into a career that is supported by the labor market,” says Day.

 

“We do a lot of training that’s related to medical and manufacturing careers. We put a lot of people through nursing assistant training so they can be certified and quickly move into a job that pays $14 to $15 an hour.”

 

Each year, CMJTS invites schools and other agencies to submit proposals to provide additional experimental and learning opportunities for out-of-school youth.

 

Day says eight youth from the area will be attending Anoka Ramsey Technical College this month to receive their forklift certification. 

 

Then they’re going through a unique experience in a boot camp-like setting.

 

“They’ll spend four weeks at Steger Wilderness Center near Ely, MN, where they will work along master stone masons and learn construction techniques by building pathways, structures and retaining walls,” says Day. 

 

The youth will be sleeping in tents and learning a skill.

 

“Our expectation is that they will be ready to enter into the masonry construction field after four weeks,” says Day.

 

To learn more about youth programs at CMJTS, call 1-800-284-7425.