STEP-UP Achieve

Feb 05, 2018

Written by: Erin Martin, STEP-UP Achieve

This article was written in January 2018 for the Quarter One newsletter.

STEP-UP Achieve - directed by AchieveMpls and part of the City of Minneapolis STEP-UP program - connects Minneapolis youth ages 16-21 with paid internships at top Minneapolis-St.Paul employers. The program helps organizations diversify their workforce and build a strong base of young, skilled workers for the entire region.

Led by its program co-chairs - U.S. Bank Executive Chairman Richard Davis and Minneapolis Foundation President and CEO R.T. Rybak - STEP-UP Achieve provided over 700 internships at nearly 140 companies and organizations across 15 industries last year, including the building ownership and management sector. Interns receive work-readiness training certified by the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce and are carefully matched with employers based on their skills, interests and abilities through a process honed since the program's founding in 2004.

Responding to strong demand from the building owners and managers industry for new and more diverse talent, STEP-UP Achieve is actively looking to grow its base of building ownership and management employers. Hiring STEP-UP Achieve interns allows employers to bring fresh ideas, energy and prospective to their workplaces, introduce young people to their profession, get real work done at a low cost and provide professional development opportunities for their own staff. STEP-UP Achieve benefits the interns and the supervisors.

Help young people reach their full potential.

These internships provide young people from diverse backgrounds with a helpful boost to reach their full educational and career potenial - making a difference in individual lives and helping address our looming regional talent shortage.

Mentor and inspire students to pursue careers in building ownership and management.

Having a mentor in the field can inspire young people and make these careers more attainable for them. 79% of interns last summer said their job impacted their career choice!

Get work done.

Interns complete a work-readiness training certified by the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce so they begin the summer with critical soft skills and ready to make meaningful contributions in your workplace.

If you are interested in participating in STEP-UP Achieve this summer, please contact Erin Martin at (612) 455-1551 or emartin@achievempls.org. You can learn more about the program at http://www.achievempls.org/stepupachieve