Skills for the future
Skills For Rhode Island’s Future: One of the most important elements of a society is how prepared are students who will eventually transition into the workforce. Are they prepared for the knowledge and skills that will be required of them? Will they be prepared for the types of jobs that are in high demand, will they be capable of performing jobs that will help them to move forward, and will they have access to the types of opportunities that will help them to build careers? A nonprofit group in Rhode Island has received funding to help make this a larger reality.
For many students, ensuring that they have an internship is not just important for their future career, it may also be a requirement for them to graduate from university. And gaining access to those internships may be helpful in other ways as well, including allowing them access to contacts that can help mentor them and open opportunities along the way. A nonprofit statewide agency in Rhode Island has received a grant from American Student Assistance in order to help place students in internship opportunities.
Skills for Rhode Island’s Future will use these funds to place four hundred and twenty-five students in internships plus hire three new job coaches. The grant is for 1.5 million dollars and is over a three year period. The funds will be used for Skills for Rhode Island’s Future’s current internship program. The programs currently take high schoolers and place them into paid summer internships with partner companies.
Governor Gina Raimondo announced this grant funding this week, at a conference at Citizens Bank:
We know this initiative is a success because we’ve seen it,” Raimondo said. “We’re seeing it and it’s working.
Rhode Island’s market executive for Citizens Bank and chairwoman of the state Board of Education, Barbara Cottam had this to say about the grant being awarded to Skills for Rhode Island’s Future:
We have a huge equity gap where, depending on your zip code, often there’s different levels of access to opportunity, to network, to get into the job market,” she said, “and I think this program is phenomenal. It brings in all students, it is blind to any of those barriers, and it gives each student a summer experience in a professional environment where they can contribute to the company and also define their career paths and what they want to do.
