Statement of Need
In a summary of 14 studies on the needs expressed by employers for entry-level job qualifications, Dr. Gary Natriello found that: 1) employers place greatest importance on employee attitudes, 2) employers emphasize basic skills over job-specific skills, and 3) employers deem it important for workers to have an understanding of the work environment (Natriello, G., What Do Employers Want in Entry-Level Workers? An Assessment of the Evidence. National Center for Education and Employment Occasional Paper No. 7)
Inner city teenagers, the long-term unemployed, and people returning from prison are faced with major obstacles to employment and remaining employed. Many lack the soft skills that are necessary to remain employed once they are hired by a company. The technical requirements of a job are defined as hard skills, and the soft skills are the non-technical skills, abilities and traits that workers need to function in an employment environment. In a work environment, these skills are quickly noticed in both people who have mastered the skills or have neglected the skills. Soft skills include but are not limited to the following:
Self Confidence
Leadership Skills
Problem Solving and other Cognitive Skills
Oral Communication Skills
Personal Qualities and Work Ethic
Interpersonal Skills
Self-Discipline
Self-Excellence
Teamwork Skills
Life Skills
To blame individuals and individual families for their poverty is unrealistic. No one wants to be poor. No parents want their children to be hungry. Those who enter poverty due to specific crisis and who have resources and support systems to move out again tend to remain in poverty for only one to three years. In the past decade, many young families have not been able to move out of poverty (Building Communities of Support for Families in Poverty, 1994).
According to William Julius Wilson in his book The Truly Disadvantaged, at any given time, 60% of those in poverty are long-term poor. Some are members of families that have been poor for generations. A combination of variables affects these families’ ability to move toward a better life. In some cases, individual traits affect one’s ability to complete an education and find a decent paying job. Obstacles clearly impede progress towards self-sufficiency. The poverty environment itself, however, is equally a problem for those looking for support and strengths to move towards self-sufficiency (Building Communities of Support for Families in Poverty, 1994).
Some of the obstacles faced by most inner city teenagers, the long-term unemployed, and people returning from prison are:
Feelings of isolation and alienation
Low aspirations
Live in an environment of fear and dishonesty
Low self-esteem
Low levels of education and poor school attendance
High unemployment levels with poor job prospects
Lack of parental involvement and support in their daily lives
Substance abuse
Physical and emotional abuse
Poverty
Difficulties accessing services (ranging from not having enough money for transportation to not being aware of the programs and services)
Crime
Racism and discrimination
More than 75 percent of all poor teenagers have below average basic skills and almost 50 percent are in the bottom fifth of basic skills because of poor reading and math skills (Children Defense Fund, 1988). A homeless child, or a child living in long-term poverty, is rarely academically average. Deviations from the norm can be misinterpreted in many ways. School behaviors related to home cultures are sometimes misperceived by teachers as negative personality traits. In some cases, teachers automatically expect lower achievement of the poor child; the child reacting to that perception will quickly fail (Department of Education, 1989).
As one employer put it in a report, Hard Work and Soft Skills, “Don’t worry so much about the technical skills. We need you to teach them how to show up on time, how to work in teams, and how to take supervision.” As reported in the Chicago Tribune, a 2001 National Association of Manufactures survey of its members reported that while 32 percent of job applicants possessed inadequate reading and writing skills, 69 percent lacked basic employability skills such as reading with understanding, speaking clearly, actively listening and resolving conflict.
Our experience tells us that young people are capable of much more than filling unskilled, dead-end jobs. With support and guidance, teenagers are capable of creating their own employment opportunities, through innovative entrepreneurial ventures tailored to the needs of their communities (Poonam Aluwalla, Project Director of EDC’s Teenagers Employment Summit).
In a summary of 14 studies on the needs expressed by employers for entry-level job qualifications, Dr. Gary Natriello found that: 1) employers place greatest importance on employee attitudes, 2) employers emphasize basic skills over job-specific skills, and 3) employers deem it important for workers to have an understanding of the work environment (Natriello, G., What Do Employers Want in Entry-Level Workers? An Assessment of the Evidence. National Center for Education and Employment Occasional Paper No. 7)
Inner city teenagers, the long-term unemployed, and people returning from prison are faced with major obstacles to employment and remaining employed. Many lack the soft skills that are necessary to remain employed once they are hired by a company. The technical requirements of a job are defined as hard skills, and the soft skills are the non-technical skills, abilities and traits that workers need to function in an employment environment. In a work environment, these skills are quickly noticed in both people who have mastered the skills or have neglected the skills. Soft skills include but are not limited to the following:
Self Confidence
Leadership Skills
Problem Solving and other Cognitive Skills
Oral Communication Skills
Personal Qualities and Work Ethic
Interpersonal Skills
Self-Discipline
Self-Excellence
Teamwork Skills
Life Skills
To blame individuals and individual families for their poverty is unrealistic. No one wants to be poor. No parents want their children to be hungry. Those who enter poverty due to specific crisis and who have resources and support systems to move out again tend to remain in poverty for only one to three years. In the past decade, many young families have not been able to move out of poverty (Building Communities of Support for Families in Poverty, 1994).
According to William Julius Wilson in his book The Truly Disadvantaged, at any given time, 60% of those in poverty are long-term poor. Some are members of families that have been poor for generations. A combination of variables affects these families’ ability to move toward a better life. In some cases, individual traits affect one’s ability to complete an education and find a decent paying job. Obstacles clearly impede progress towards self-sufficiency. The poverty environment itself, however, is equally a problem for those looking for support and strengths to move towards self-sufficiency (Building Communities of Support for Families in Poverty, 1994).
Some of the obstacles faced by most inner city teenagers, the long-term unemployed, and people returning from prison are:
Feelings of isolation and alienation
Low aspirations
Live in an environment of fear and dishonesty
Low self-esteem
Low levels of education and poor school attendance
High unemployment levels with poor job prospects
Lack of parental involvement and support in their daily lives
Substance abuse
Physical and emotional abuse
Poverty
Difficulties accessing services (ranging from not having enough money for transportation to not being aware of the programs and services)
Crime
Racism and discrimination
More than 75 percent of all poor teenagers have below average basic skills and almost 50 percent are in the bottom fifth of basic skills because of poor reading and math skills (Children Defense Fund, 1988). A homeless child, or a child living in long-term poverty, is rarely academically average. Deviations from the norm can be misinterpreted in many ways. School behaviors related to home cultures are sometimes misperceived by teachers as negative personality traits. In some cases, teachers automatically expect lower achievement of the poor child; the child reacting to that perception will quickly fail (Department of Education, 1989).
As one employer put it in a report, Hard Work and Soft Skills, “Don’t worry so much about the technical skills. We need you to teach them how to show up on time, how to work in teams, and how to take supervision.” As reported in the Chicago Tribune, a 2001 National Association of Manufactures survey of its members reported that while 32 percent of job applicants possessed inadequate reading and writing skills, 69 percent lacked basic employability skills such as reading with understanding, speaking clearly, actively listening and resolving conflict.
Our experience tells us that young people are capable of much more than filling unskilled, dead-end jobs. With support and guidance, teenagers are capable of creating their own employment opportunities, through innovative entrepreneurial ventures tailored to the needs of their communities (Poonam Aluwalla, Project Director of EDC’s Teenagers Employment Summit).