Are you ready to step up for youth in our community? I hope you are. The Minneapolis youth employment program Step Up needs volunteers to help with mock interviews March 18 to 21 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. You'll help our future workforce practice firm handshakes, eye-contact and other terrifying interactions with adults before they move into summer jobs and beyond. Business exec? Full-time parent? Retiree? Perfect. Director Anna Peterson wants about 400 of you. You'll get trained on-site (10 minutes; you've got this) before meeting four or five young people for 15-minute conversations. "People leave with a sense of hopefulness," Peterson said. The youth, of course. But, more so, you.
Q: First, thank you for uttering that joyful word, summer — as in summer jobs. When do the teens start?
A: Their job skills training has already begun. The upcoming mock interviews are a culmination of that. We match them with jobs in May and work begins June 17 for nine weeks.
Q: Speaking of jobs, Step Up has created quite a few.
A: We work with about 1,500 interns a year, ages 14 to 21. Since 2003, when Mayor R.T. Rybak started Step Up — run by the city of Minneapolis in partnership with AchieveMpls, CareerForce Minneapolis and Project for Pride in Living — we've created more than 27,000 internship opportunities with nearly 200 companies, public agencies and nonprofits across 17 industries. Last summer, our interns cumulatively earned $3.3 million.
Q: How does that break down as an hourly wage?
A: The younger youth receive a training wage, which is 85 percent of the current minimum wage, so that's $10.50 an hour. The older youth earn $12.25 an hour.
Q: What might volunteers expect during the mock interviews?