BTC students gain employment through Global Internship for Unemployed Youth

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June 30, 2017

GLOBAL INTERNSHIP FOR UNEMPLOYED YOUTH RESULTS IN INCREASED EMPLOYMENT NUMBERS

 
At Bellingham Technical College, 90% of the interns who completed the program have found employment or entered a training program as a result.
 
Bellingham, Wash., June 30, 2017 — Since the inception of the Global Internship for Unemployed Youth, more than 700 unemployed youth (ages 18 to 24) in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States — including Bellingham — have received workforce readiness training and paid internships with local manufacturers.
 
Alcoa Foundation has developed a partnership with Bellingham Technical College, and other non-profit organizations around the world, to offer paid internships to unemployed and underemployed youth with local manufacturing companies. Since 2013, 69 interns have entered the training program through Bellingham Technical College, and 90 percent of the BTC interns who completed the program have found employment or entered a training program as a result.
 
A mid-program evaluation of internship participants, program managers and manufacturers shows the program is not only working, it’s thriving. For example, 71 percent of the interns were unemployed the year before the program, but 65 percent of program participants are now employed.
 
It’s not just about the employment figures. Interns are learning skills on the job that will serve them for decades to come. Some highlights from the evaluation:
 
  •          before their internship, interns often struggled to build confidence; 90 percent of participants said they gained confidence in their abilities as a result of the program;
  •          their experience allowed them to learn skills to feel better able to contribute;
  •          among the top takeaways from their intern supervisors was the importance of time management, a skill instilled in the interns and honed during their workplace experience;
  •          companies benefited, too, because they gained motivated interns who were eager to learn and showed their worth, while they increased their outputs and bottom line.
 
An often-overlooked source for building the advanced manufacturing talent pipeline, unemployed and underemployed youth are critical to the future success of our local industry. As the manufacturing sector shifts towards more highly skilled jobs, Alcoa Foundation is working on innovative solutions to provide the training and experience necessary for young employees to fill these positions through its Global Internship Program for Unemployed Youth.
 
Currently, the program is in its second phase. Since 2013, Legacy Alcoa Foundation, and subsequently Alcoa Foundation and Arconic Foundation, have committed over $2 million to provide workforce readiness training, paid internships with local manufacturers, and career planning and placement for more than 700 unemployed youth. Not only are the interns and manufacturers benefitting, the local impact to communities cannot be underscored.
 
Investments in manufacturing have not only contributed to better standards of living and more jobs, they are having a ripple effect for the broader economy. According to The Manufacturing Institute’s Skills Gap Report, every dollar spent in manufacturing adds $1.37 to the U.S. economy and every 100 jobs in a manufacturing facility creates an additional 250 jobs in other sectors. Manufacturing matters.
 
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About the Institute of International Education
For nearly a century, IIE has been a world leader in international education. We work to build more peaceful and equitable societies by advancing scholarship, building economies and promoting access to opportunity. As a not-for-profit with 19 offices and affiliates worldwide, IIE collaborates with a range of corporate, government and foundation partners across the globe to design and manage scholarship, study abroad, workforce training and leadership development programs.
 
About Alcoa Foundation
Alcoa Foundation’s predecessor, currently known as Legacy Alcoa Foundation (and formerly known as Alcoa Foundation), was founded in 1952 as one of the few endowed corporate foundations in the United States. As a result of the separation of Alcoa Inc. into Alcoa Corporation and Arconic Inc. in November 2016, two new foundations were formed, into which the assets of Legacy Alcoa Foundation were transferred. One of the newly formed foundations, known now as Alcoa Foundation, is the foundation associated with Alcoa Corporation. Today, Alcoa Foundation invests where Alcoa Corporation has a presence, providing grants that contribute to environmental excellence around the world, particularly in the areas of biodiversity conservation and climate change research. Learn more at alcoafoundation.com and follow @AlcoaFoundation on Twitter.
 
About Bellingham Technical College
Bellingham Technical College is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, and offers seven direct transfer degrees such as pre-engineering, pre-nursing and business. Completion of these degrees prepares BTC students to transfer with a junior status to participating colleges and universities in Washington State. BTC offers 37 associate degree and 51 certificate options, providing professional technical education to support local and regional industry workforce needs, as well as a Bachelor of Applied Science in Operations Management. For more information, go to www.btc.edu.
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