Sacramento, California - Human Resources Executive and Work-Life Coach Barbara Dwyer announces The Job Journey, a turnkey classroom and distance-learning program that teaches students soft skills, such as communication, problem solving, leadership, and teamwork, necessary to succeed in job interviews and on the job.
"There is a resounding disconnect in communication between today's young adults - Generation Y - and those with whom they're both interviewing and competing - Baby Boomers and Generation X," says Dwyer, who founded The Job Journey six years ago after seeing a majority of Generation Y interviewees fail to pass the interview process. A human resources executive for 25 years, Dwyer observed that most young applicants were unable to communicate and negotiate effectively when interviewing for entry-level positions.
The Job Journey is offered as a six-week classroom program as well as an at-home version, which guides young adults-or those re-entering the job market-through a process of self-examination, goal-setting, and soft-skill building exercises. The Job Journey program, taught for six years by Dwyer, is now being implemented at schools in California and across the U.S. Dwyer also gives lectures to educational and professional groups on the importance of soft-skills training to Generation Y members.
The program has been incredibly successful in the outcomes of its student graduates. One recent class of 20 students at the Travis Education Center High School in Fairfield, California ended with 90% of the students being offered a job or a follow-up interview by local businesses.
With teen employment at its lowest since the 1940s-36.7%-The Job Journey's 90% success rate speaks for itself. But the secret to its success lies in its mission: to help young adults become young professionals. The mission, the company, and the program are outgrowths of what Barbara Dwyer and others have observed: Generation Y is having difficulty transitioning from school to work.
In fact, social scientists predict that one in five members of Generation Y will never hold a living-wage job. "These (are) kids whose whole lives have really been based on what some adult tells them to do," says Mel Levine, MD, author of Ready or Not, Here Life Comes.
It's also a generation that's falling short on basic skills, according to a new national survey by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The study found that 20% of US college students in four-year programs, and 30% in two-year programs, have only basic quantitative skills-meaning, for example, that they "are unable to estimate if their car has enough gasoline to get to the next gas station or calculate the total cost of ordering office supplies."
The Job Journey is a Sacramento, California-based organization that helps prepare students who are entering the job market for the first time or re-entering the job market. The intense and highly interactive career preparation program is offered as a turnkey solution for schools and youth service programs, or as an independent-study package of DVDs with accompanying study materials. The Job Journey is produced by a uniquely qualified and highly motivated team of human relations, communications, and education professionals with a diverse and comprehensive skill set and a passion for their audience.
"Empowering a generation by helping turn young adults into young professionals."