Job Skills and Minority Youth
New Program Directions

This book evaluates new programs that aim to reduce minority youth unemployment by improving high school students' marketable job skills.

Barton J. Hirsch (Author)

9781107427709, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 March 2016

204 pages, 6 b/w illus. 6 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.3 kg

'This book provides an exceedingly rich exemplar of applied social science research, invaluable guidance for the administrators of youth development and job training programs, and inspiration for education and labor force policy-makers.' Jeylan Mortimer, University of Minnesota

Minority youth unemployment is an enduring economic and social concern. This book evaluates two new initiatives for minority high school students that seek to cultivate marketable job skills. The first is an after-school program that provides experiences similar to apprenticeships, and the second emphasizes new approaches to improving job interview performance. The evaluation research has several distinct strengths. It involves a randomized controlled trial, uncommon in assessments of this issue and age group. Marketable job skills are assessed through a mock job interview developed for this research and administered by experienced human resource professionals. Mixed methods are utilized, with qualitative data shedding light on what actually happens inside the programs, and a developmental science approach situating the findings in terms of adolescent development. Beneficial for policy makers and practitioners as well as scholars, Job Skills and Minority Youth focuses on identifying the most promising tactics and addressing likely implementation issues.

1. Preparing youth for work
2. Do youth in After School Matters have more marketable job skills?
3. A comparison of the strongest and the weakest apprenticeships
4. Which apprenticeship has the best model for scaling up?
5. What human resource interviewers told us about youth employability
6. A program for teaching youth how to do well in job interviews
7. Guidelines for the future
Appendix 1: the impact of After School Matters on positive youth development, academics, and problem behavior
Appendix 2: the Northwestern mock job interview.

Subject Areas: Employment & unemployment [KCFM], Educational psychology [JNC], Child & developmental psychology [JMC], Sociology: work & labour [JHBL], Urban communities [JFSG]