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Recognized as an Effective School-to-Work Practice, July, 2001
Creating Career Development Opportunities for High School Students
Teamsters Local Union 541
Kansas City, Missouri
Overview of the Project
Teamsters Local Union 541 participates in several school-to-work outreach programs with high school and college students in the Kansas City, Missouri area. The program consists of several components, including (1) participation of union members in high school career fairs, (2) providing job shadowing opportunities for high school students, and (3) sponsoring an internship program for area college students who are attending a special community-based job skills development program. Career fairs are conducted over a three-day period, where high school students get a chance to learn about careers and employment opportunities in a variety of occupational areas. This activity is supplemented with information from handouts and brochures which describes the Teamsters and benefits of being a union member. Local high school students are also provided job shadowing opportunities, where they can observe and develop an understanding of the types of services provided by union members. In this activity, students typically spend several days with union members, learning firsthand about the daily activities that take place in a union office. An internship program has also been established by the local. In this activity, area college students are paired with business representatives to help them gain an understanding of the collective bargaining process and what is involved to foster and maintain positive and effective labor-management relationships. With a membership of about 2,200 drivers, warehouse workers, and others mostly in the construction trades, Local 541 has been conducting school-to-work activities for about the past four years.
The Need
According to Chastity Young, Secretary of Teamsters Local Union 541, "non-college bound students need to know what their options are." Largely as a result of the growing construction industry, the local recognizes a need to seek and reach out to places where future union members are before they reach the job market. For the most part, students are not provided with information about unions, so they lack the knowledge necessary to help them find jobs with good wages and benefits. Armed with such knowledge before they reach the job market will help increase the chance that students will look for jobs or seek careers that include benefits. Not only will this knowledge yield direct benefits to students, unions will also be strengthened by having an ample supply of recruits to assume union jobs in the future. Given the need to get the "union message out" to high school students, Teamsters Local Union 541 has developed Creating Career Development Opportunities for High School Students, a program that consists of three basic school-to-work activities: (1) career fairs, (2) job shadowing opportunities, (3) and student internships for area college students. Each aspect of the program has been designed to address the need to inform high school students about union career development opportunities, from the perspective of large groups to individual student learning experiences.
Meeting the Need
Three basic strategies are employed to reach high school and college students. In the first case, Teamsters Local Union 541 actively participates in "career fairs." Many high schools devote at least one day or more to help students learn about the wide variety of jobs and careers available to them upon graduation. In recognition of this "teachable moment," members of the local reserve a table or both to provide students with information about the union and the types of jobs and training opportunities available to them. In addition to providing information about the union, local staff also discuss with students the kind of wages and benefits that can result from union membership. To illustrate the wide difference between union and nonunion wages and benefits, Local 541 uses a "scale" to demonstrate the clear advantages of membership. In addition to talking to students about jobs, members of the local are also available to discuss training options for students. As stated by Secretary Young, "We gear them in the direction where they can get training—we also tell them about company training programs that we recommend." The primary goal of the career fair activity is to reach large numbers of students. Generally, career fairs are conducted about 6-8 times per year at various Kansas City high schools. In most cases, the local is invited to the high school whenever a "career day" event is held.
A second strategy used by Local 541 is to provide job shadowing opportunities for high school students. Currently the local is collaborating with two area high schools to provide a firsthand learning opportunity for students in their senior year. Twice a year, students are invited to "shadow" a union member so they can observe what the job is like on a daily basis. The local provides a students with a list of jobs from which they can select based on their interests. Naturally, because of safety concerns, students are accompanied by business agents to ensure that students get an opportunity to learn what the various jobs are like, but in a way that does not expose them to any sort of risk. As a result, students are provided with the opportunity to actually see how various types of jobs are performed. Thus far, the local has provided job shadowing opportunities for more than 60 Kansas City area high school students in the past two years since this aspect of the program was started.
A third school-to-work strategy used by Teamsters Local Union 541 is to provide internships for college students. In partnership with the Greater Kansas City Building and Construction and Trades Council and CORO, students majoring in the field of business spend about 2-3 weeks with local business agents to learn about labor organizations and the collective bargaining process. The main goal of the internship is to provide college students the opportunity to interact with members of the local and gain a broader understanding of the roles and responsibilities of unions in relation to meeting the needs of its membership.
The Results
Career fairs are probably the most effective means of reaching out to large numbers of students in order to inform them of what can be gained through union membership. Depending on the size of the high school, many students can learn about union jobs and training activities in a relatively short period of time. Based on attendance at 6-8 career fairs, it is possible to get the union message out to more than 2,000 student in a large, suburban area. Teamsters Local Union 541 believes that career fairs provide an excellent forum for helping high school students to understand the importance of union membership. Although much fewer students are involved, the job shadowing opportunities offered by the local can often have a much more profound impact in terms of a unique learning experience for students. For example, Ms. Young pointed out that two former job shadow students eventually found full-time work in a warehouse and an assembly company served by the union. Ms. Young stated, "They were able find jobs that they probably never would have known existed—when they graduated, they just gave us a call."
Reflections
Despite the range of activities conducted by Teamsters Local Union 541, Ms. Young stated that "We haven’t spent a lot of money on these activities." That is, the local develops the career fair materials "in house" and someone is always on hand to attend the fairs on an average of 6-8 times per year. With regard to the job shadowing school-to-work activity, Teamsters local Union 541 develops and sends letters to schools throughout the area to get on the school’s listing for job shadowing opportunities which occur during the academic year. In reflecting on the types of resources needed to conduct school-to-work activities, Ms. Young said "I think that any local union can get involved in the schools relatively easily—you don’t have to designate a full-time person to do it." With regard to ideas that might strengthen the local’s school-to-work efforts in the future, Ms. Young believes that the development of a training program would be a considerable asset to compliment the local’s current effort. She stated that "It would be nice if we could offer the students some sort of training program where we could actually place students in jobs after their training." However, she also indicated that current efforts being implemented by the local were very successful, suggesting that any type of school-to-work initiative started by a union would be a benefit to students. In summarizing her thoughts on this issue, Ms. Young stressed that "Even if you spend only one day with the students, they will learn something from it."
More Information
If you would like to learn more about Creating Career Development Opportunities for High School Students, contact:
Ms. Chastity Young, Secretary
Teamsters Local Unit 541
4501 Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd
Kansas City, MO 64130
Phone: (816) 921-1700
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