A US youth employment programme is giving Gen Z students an intensive introduction to workplace life before they leave high school, as employers complain that many young recruits lack professional, interpersonal and technical skills.
Genesys Works, a national non-profit organisation, provides underserved teenagers with eight weeks of summer training, followed by paid corporate internships and ongoing coaching. Its business partners include Accenture, JPMorgan and Mayo Clinic.
The programme teaches students how to communicate at work, think critically, use office software and conduct themselves in professional settings. It also helps them prepare CVs, build LinkedIn profiles and practise for interviews.
Byron V. Garrett, chief executive of Genesys Works, said the issue was not necessarily a shortage of young talent but whether candidates were ready to enter the workplace.
“I don’t believe [it] when employers say that they can’t find the talent. The challenge is they do want someone who’s ready to go to work,” he said.
Garrett said many students did not have relatives or family friends who could advise them on workplace problems, leaving them unfamiliar with the expectations of a professional job.
Gen Z workplace training covers emails, meetings and office skills
During the eight-week course, students are taught to keep their phones away during meetings, avoid abbreviations in emails and stay on top of documents. The programme also places emphasis on punctuality, reporting structures, logic and reasoning.
“We’re giving you those office professional skills so that you know what it means to go to work, to be on time, to report into a structure,” Garrett said.
Genesys Works has served more than 14,000 students over the past two decades. In 2025, it helped 2,161 teenagers begin professional careers and worked with 205 corporate partners across 27 industries, including healthcare, technology, finance and construction.
The placements are paid, with students able to earn as much as $14,000 during their senior-year internship. Garrett said earning money gave participants a “different sense of dignity”, particularly at a time when finances are tight for many American households.
Alumni who have been out of the programme for at least seven years earn an average salary of $67,000 a year, while Genesys estimates that 73% of surveyed former participants earn more than at least one of their parents. It also says that 20% own a home.
Healthcare and construction employers increase demand for young workers
Although companies have reduced hiring in some areas, Garrett said healthcare employers were taking on more students trained through Genesys Works. Mayo Clinic’s campus in Jacksonville, Florida, has doubled the size of its intern cohort for the latest cycle, he said.
Demand has also grown alongside construction activity, with students taking on office-based roles in procurement and quality assurance rather than working on building sites.
Garrett said technology remained the strongest area of opportunity, particularly for young people seeking careers in IT. Many programme graduates have gone on to work at IT help desks, he said, while employers increasingly value workers who can combine technical ability with professional workplace skills.
