Just a few minutes ago, I was reading this morning’s Washington Post and a column by Robert McCartney called ‘The $1 billion question: How can we create jobs?’:
Mr. McCartney writes about one of the founders of the Carlyle Group, Bill Conway, and how he wants to give away half of his wealth before he dies.
Mr. Conway doesn’t want to give away the money, just for the sake of giving it away. No, he wants to create something of lasting value, which got me to thinking about what can be done that would really help shake the grip of poverty.
What I am going to talk about is only one idea, there are probably tons of them.
A lot, but not enough has been written about the problem of youth unemployment which is a minor problem when you discuss the overall decline in standard of living brought on by high overall unemployment, underemployment and lower wages or buying power for a majority of Americans.
But, if Mr. Conway is going to give away the money and he is thinking in terms of what’s the best way to have a positive effect on peoples’ lives, I feel that putting together a program that brings public and private employers together to hire teenagers and young adults would provide the greatest value.
From my own experience, I had my first job working for the high school football team selling popcorn and soda, or working the sideline chain gang during varsity football games. I went on to bag groceries at Winn Dixie. Start my own car detailing job and work for the City as a recreation leader.
What I want to point out is not the type of job, or what I made, or any of that. But what I want to do is point out the skills that I gained through simple jobs.
By working for my high school, I learned to sell and I learned how to follow directions. And, since all of my friends were watching the game while I was working, I learned how to set priorities and to do things even when it would be easier to do something else. I also learned the value of earning my own money and what that money really was worth.
Next, working for Winn Dixie, I learned about customer service. Also, the State of Florida would only let kids under 16 work on the weekends, again, I learned how to do things that weren’t always the most fun or what I wanted to do. Plus, more importantly, I learned customer service, how to talk with people of different backgrounds, and I learned how to negotiate my way through a diverse workplace.
Starting my own car detailing business gave me more lessons:
1. Profit/loss
2. Negotiation
3. Management skills
4. Networking
Finally, working for the City taught me a ton. First, I expanded on all of the skills listed earlier in the post. But, as I worked my way up the ladder from my first summer as a recreation leader dealing with the summer program until my last summer as the primary teacher of the City’s first swimming instruction program, I learned how to participate in something larger than myself, how to negotiate my way through complex organizations, and how to effectively position myself as a problem solver.
Do I expect that anyone person is going to learn all of these lessons at the same pace, in the same way, or at the same time as I did in my life, I doubt it. But, I do think if we can create a program that lets kids and young adults get jobs at early ages, they can learn early on a lot of soft skills that will help them as they advance and learn more hard skills.
How would this program work? I’ll think on that and get back to you.