Baltimore is employing 8,000 young adults from the age of 14-21 to work in various job positions. These jobs are offered through city and state employers, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector. It is a five-week program that offers them opportunities to work for 25 hours a week at a minimum wage, which is $8.75 an hour in Baltimore.
These kids are learning invaluable work skills that will help them excel and add experience to their resume. As mentioned before, these kids can be placed anywhere such as helping at a hospital, helping clean the local parks, or working for startups. Some kids are even being taught to code! They’re being paid to learn to code.
Code in the Schools, a nonprofit, runs a coding boot camp called CodeWorks. At the boot camp, participants are offered four different courses that include web development, video game development, robotics/programming in python and database design/coding. The kids that are matched with this program go through five weeks of intense training that leaves them with a invaluable experience and a portfolio ready to present to potential employers.
At the end of the program the participants are able to present their work to businesses and community members, which in the past have landed many of them job offers or enrolled into four-year degree programs.
The tech sector is growing and will only get bigger, it is an essential part of businesses everywhere and with programs like the one offered through Code in the Schools youth are able to get a head start and learn invaluable skills.