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Grow Your Company Faster with a Student Mentoring Programby Jerry Cahn, Ph.D., J.D.*

The US has a significant Youth Skills Gap and you can make a difference while growing your company faster!

With a national unemployment rate above 7.6%, youth unemployment is double. An Associated Press study found that 50+% of all college graduates had not found jobs commensurate

with their skills.

In Why Good People Cant Get Jobs , Prof. Peter Cappelli (Wharton) notes that turning to schools and

government agencies doesnt work. He concludes that the solution lies with companies. Howard Schultz, CEO

of Starbucks, reached the same conclusion and created Create Jobs for USA a program to raise money from

customers to help fund a jobs training program for people out of work. However, such an approach is not self-

sustainable. Id like to share one which is, and can serve many more kids: Quality Student Mentoring Programs.

Employers can help students identify jobs that are appropriate for them while still in school, so they takecourses that enable them to acquire the skills and knowledge that fit desired careers. Through internships,

they also learn how the workplace operates (e.g., teamwork and interpersonal communication) and make

better career decisions. As an intern observed, students shouldnt get their first exposure to hospital life in

medical school and then discover they cant handle the blood, pressure, hours, etc.

Second, mentoring students pays large benefits for companies.

Use them to identify new talent to recruit. One CEO reports that one-third of the team came in as interns.Everyone who applies is smart; the internships let us discover whether theyll fit into our culture.

Students can work on extra research and pilot projects expanding company offerings cost-effectively. Supervising students gives Mentors the opportunity to improve their executive management skills. Demonstrate the companys societal commitment by helping young people find the right jobs and careers.Throughout my career, Ive offered internships to students from high school through graduate school. They

learn about jobs and the workplace, and use the information to choose appropriate courses. In many cases,

students came to stretch their skills and get a broader view of a profession. For instance, at PPNYC, pre-med

students learned about customer service and how long waiting times are counterproductive to health

education. They enabled us to conduct research, evaluation & development projects; several later got jobs.

Ive mentored over 500+ interns (marketing, sales, internet, public policy, health care, etc.) and their feedback

has been very positive; helping get jobs they want and feeling better equipped to enter their fields of work.

Mentor Our Kids (www.mentorourkids.org ) is an organization focused on helping Companies (1) increase the

number of available internships and (2) improve the quality of programs from the perspectives of the Company

Program Coordinators, the Supervising Mentors and the students. Our first two priorities are (1) building an

online How-To Manual for the Coordinators and Mentors to facilitate building a successful program, and (2)

building a support community so Coordinators and Mentors throughout the nation can support one another.

Imagine the impact that businesses can have if they commit to providing student mentoring. While most

Vistage member companies with $5-$500 in revenues can mentor several students at a time, assume they only

take one per Spring, Summer and Fall semester; the 16,000 members would serve almost 50,000 students!

Ready to make a difference? If your company doesnt have a Mentoring Program or has one that can be

expanded and/or improved to better serve students, let us know so we can help you. Its a quadruple win!

Everyone benefits: students, companies, mentors, and the country as a whole as we shrink the youth jobs gap.

* Jerry Cahn, Ph.D., J.D., is the Executive Director of Mentor Our Kids, Chairman of the Presentation Excellence

Group and chairs Vistage New York. For more info, contactjcahn@MentorOurKids.org or 800 493-1334.