Template revised April 12, 2018.
COMMISSION
AGENDA MEMORANDUM
Item No.
7b
BRIEFING ITEM
Date of Meeting
February 11, 2020
DATE: January 24, 2020
TO: Stephen P. Metruck, Executive Director
FROM: Amberine Wilson, HR Outreach Program Manager
Kim DesMarais, Talent Management Director
Katie Gerard, Senior Director Human Resources
SUBJECT: Youth Internship Programs Update
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Last November, Human Resources provided an update to the Commission on the Port’s
successful 2018 internship program. At that time, the Commission requested a five-year strategic
plan be completed during 2019. While the initial landscape analysis was complete in 2019, there
is still additional work being done to connect the program to the Workforce Development Policy
Directive and the new Office of Equity Diversity and Inclusion.
This briefing provides an update on the 2019 youth internship programs and discusses current
priorities and plans for the 2020 program. The strategic plan for connecting the Port’s internship
programs to the Port’s WFD policy, regional Career Connected Learning (CCL) strategies, and
partners to grow the programs’ impact will be discussed at a later date.
Over the last five years we have hired over 500 youth while making significant progress on the
main goals for the internship program:
• Raise awareness of the Port of Seattle and Port-related Careers
• Build a Diverse Talent Pipeline for the Port and Port-Related Industries
• Lessen the Opportunity Gap Among Youth in King County
• Offer Internships to at least 90 High School and 30 College Students at the Port
2020 Priorities:
• Prioritize Internship Opportunities Based on Labor Market Data
• Increase number of interns who earn school credit during their internship
• Implement Outcome Metrics Strategy and Produce Benchmark Report
• Launch Community Participatory-Based-Research Pilot to Increase and Measure
Awareness
• Launch Alumni Engagement Pilot Event
• Partner with Workforce Development to Develop Port-Wide Career Connected Learning
Strategy
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. 7b Page 2 of 5
Meeting Date: February 11, 2020
Template revised September 22, 2016.
BACKGROUND
Career Connected Learning
Career Connected Learning is a continuum of events and work-related experiences designed to
create meaningful linkages between K-12 education and future employment opportunities. They
are typically broken down into a series of events classified as, “Awareness”, “Experiential”,
“Preparation”, and “Launch”. These events build career pipelines or pathways for young people
from an early age.
Awareness events are most prevalent and diverse as they are creating
introductory-level exposure for young people to regional industries and
opportunities.
• Career fairs, industry speakers in classroom settings, worksite tours,
curriculum development and/delivery
Experiential events are at the next and more focused level of learning
opportunities. These traditionally involve short-term, direct interaction with
professionals.
• Networking events, job shadows, work-based problem solving, innovation
challenges, career-prep training
Preparation events include extended direct interactions with professionals. These
provide supervised practical application of skills and knowledge.
• Worksite learning, internships, youth apprenticeship, career readiness
training
Launch events prepare youth for employment in a specific range of occupations
and often, but not always, occur after high school.
• Apprenticeships, college training programs/certificates, vocational
training, clinical experience
CCL best practice recommends that young people are given multiple opportunities over the
course of their education to be exposed to and get hands on experience with the industries and
career opportunities in their surrounding area.
Regional Career Connected Learning Landscape
The systemic development of these pathways in the Puget Sound region can address an acute
and present dilemma – the Workforce Gap.
There will be 740,000 job openings in Washington State by 2021. Workers with a postsecondary
credential— such as a degree, apprenticeship, or certificate, will fill most of those jobs.
However, only 40% of our high school students go on to earn such a credential by age 26.
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. 7b Page 3 of 5
Meeting Date: February 11, 2020
Template revised September 22, 2016.
In short, the jobs are here, but we are not preparing your young people to fill them.
Career Connected Learning is the effort to close that gap by preparing young people, early and
often, for the workforce they will eventually enter. Our current system keeps employment and
education separate. This is doing a disservice to young people because they are ill-prepared for
the opportunities that surround them.
CCL pathways connect K-12 education with industry-based experiential learning to make
potential pathways to opportunity more accessible.
The Port of Seattle is in a unique position to work in this system to create pathways that serve
the community and port-related industries while working to close the achievement gap in
service to equity in the region.
The Port of Seattle’s Internship Programs
In the last five years, the Port has increased its high school internship program more than 12
times over and it has doubled its college program, while keeping expenses flat. We have done
this with a commitment to continuous process improvement, internal and external
partnerships, direct outreach strategies, and an increase in part-time school year opportunities.
We have also followed research-based best practices to add career awareness events,
networking workshops, team-development and project management opportunities, and an
equity-focus to the programs.
The Last Five Years have been focused on program development and growth:
2015
2016
2017
2019
Summer
Fall
Spring
Summer
Fall
HS Pilot
Programs
11
10
6
High School
Interns
8
68
82
81
79
11
College and
Graduate
Interns
26
37
38
49
2
1
49
1
Total
34
105
120
157
The question is, how many of those internships lead to jobs? How many of our awareness and
experiential events lead youth to careers in Port-related industries? It is time to focus on
growing the pipelines into these careers and measuring our outcomes.
A look at the Port’s current career connected learning activities, indicates that we should:
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. 7b Page 4 of 5
Meeting Date: February 11, 2020
Template revised September 22, 2016.
• Use labor market data to assess the needs of the Port and port-related industries to
inform internship offerings and programing
• Be more internally collaborative in our Port-lead or sponsored CCL events and
programming
• Strengthen and diversify our CCL programs by increasing outreach to community and
partners who connect to regional CCL strategies
• Increase and diversify CCL activities; Involve more departments and divisions across the
Port in CCL activities
• Create space for non-traditional credential holders and job seekers to participate in Port
CCL programming
• Share our lessons learned and successful model with other public agencies to increase
regional impact and capacity
THE NEXT FIVE YEARS: PROGRAM REFINEMENT AND REGIONAL IMPACT
Vision:
Our Internship Programs operate within a regional Career Connected Learning strategy to
achieve human resources’ and workforce development’s missions. Opportunities have a focus
on Port-related sectors, labor market data, community partnerships, equity, and outcome
metrics. The programs are a model of how to build successful career pipelines for maximum
regional impact.
Overview
Imagine a Port internship program where all participants are:
• Selected by equity-focused community partners that have already begun training them
on Port-related careers,
• Placed into internships at the Port that build upon that curriculum and provide them
with experiences that offer school credit and transferable skills that help them compete
for in-demand jobs,
• Connected to post-internship opportunities that guide them to the next step in their
career, whether that’s an apprenticeship, college, post-secondary program, another
internship, or an entry level job,
• Linked to alumni surveys, engagement events, and social media communications so we
can better track our long-term impact and recruit former interns.
By eliminating the competitive hiring process, HR can spend more time building community
partnerships and designing quality internship opportunities. We can also develop programs in
partnership with local communities, so they are a part of the design process. By leveraging
partners, we increase equity and impact by providing services both before and after the
internship.
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. 7b Page 5 of 5
Meeting Date: February 11, 2020
Template revised September 22, 2016.
ATTACHMENTS TO THIS BRIEFING
(1) Presentation slides
PREVIOUS COMMISSION ACTIONS OR BRIEFINGS
November 27, 2018 – The Commission was briefed on 2018 program and goals for 2019
program.