The Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County is dedicated to preparing its teen Club members for future success by providing experiential workforce readiness and college readiness programming that introduces a myriad of career paths in high growth industries including healthcare, STEM, the construction trade and culinary arts. As part of this program the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County had numerous internship success stories in 2023 with its corporate partners.
For example, the organization had many of its college bound Club members participate in numerous job shadowing, apprenticeship, and internship programs with its corporate partners. This included workforce readiness programs in Palm Beach County with:
⦁ Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County
⦁ Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections office
⦁ Northwest Equity
⦁ HCA Palm West Hospital
One of those internships was with Jeremiah, a Club member at the Smith & Moore Family Teen Center in Belle Glade. Currently a freshman at Palm Beach State College, Jeremiah is pursuing a career in engineering. This led to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County in securing him an internship opportunity with the Solid Waste Authority. Jeremiah spent his summer learning about SWA’s incredible environmental projects and meeting with many engineers performing a variety of crucial positions. To get to the SWA in West Palm Beach, Jeremiah would have to take two buses from Belle Glade to be there before 8am each morning.
“My favorite thing was to learn about how landfills work and how complicated they really are. This internship was an incredible opportunity for me to work alongside so many impressive engineers. It certainly has inspired me to continue my career goals and one day have my own civil engineering company,” said Jeremiah.
“From day one, we were impressed with the work ethic of Jeremiah and our engineers absolutely loved showing him the day-to-day operations of multiple departments. Jeremiah truly exemplifies the passionate teens that have been nurtured by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County and we look forward to continuing our partnership with another summer internship next year,” said Collette Gotte, Director of Human Resources for the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County.
Historically, teens have been the most under-served population in the after-school space and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County is addressing this need by expanding teen programs and opening dedicated Workforce Readiness Centers to ensure teens graduate from high school with a plan for the future including post-secondary educational opportunities, a workforce certification program.
“Because of the relationships and support of the local community, we have been able to match teen members with corporate partners for internship and apprenticeship opportunities that teach them the life skills needed to succeed in the 21st Century workforce. It’s been a resounding success and we look forward to increasing our internship program in 2024,” said Jaene Miranda, President & CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County.
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