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Hiring Teens

Empowering the Next Generation in the Workforce

By Staci Nappi, Mom Publisher/Editor, Riverhead Macaroni Kid August 6, 2024

Hiring Teens: Empowering the Next Generation in the Workforce


Giving teens their first shot at working is about more than filling jobs. It’s about recognizing the obstacles they face, and then providing the tools and resources teens need to succeed. When they help teens ready for work, parents, and business owners play a special role in preparing the future workforce that will propel our nation’s economy. With their encouragement and assistance, teens’ job futures can be radically changed for the better. All of it is part of a shared responsibility that we cannot – and should not – set aside. Teens face obstacles. Parents and entrepreneurs help them by giving teens the tools and resources they need to conquer these challenges, and those who work with teens are shaping the workforce of the future by preparing them for employment.

If you google, you will find many templates for teen resumes as well. It would be helpful if you google teen resume templates as it would enable you to create a resume for a teen as well as their attributes. Sure, go to Google, and many variants of teen resume templates will arise, which might help to create a resume for teen, and with their attributes. Definitely, and there must be some websites/portals from which teens must have to take information/steps for creating their resume as well as their job searching. Ex: Indeed and other desk-less job searching locations.

Given that the primary purpose of a first job for 14s and 16s is not money but learning and experience, smart first jobs don’t need to be full-time and inflexible. Retail (stores), food service (restaurants), tutoring, or pet sitting are good examples.

It can be a challenge for some parents and entrepreneurs due to taking up these first jobs can both be a challenge and a task because most teens of this age group struggle to find jobs because of a lack of experience in work, first job can be both a challenge and a task to a parent or any entrepreneur who employs teenagers for the first time.
As a parent or any entrepreneur, you should consider the challenges teens may likely face, if they are to take up or be employed for the first time in their lives.
In my own opinion, I will do all it takes to guide and support a teenager to acquire the needed experience while working on while in a job because, this young person will grow and become better at anything if any parent or entrepreneur supports him or her to take up this first job, likewise any employer who should have in mind legal laws guiding the employment of underage minors that they mustn't violate their rights to prevent maltreatment on them.

Firstly, experience is often a key requirement for teens to get their first real job. Many legitimate openings for teens will require that the teen has some kind of experience, but if he doesn’t and all the other applicants do, good luck competing against someone who has what you don’t have. What does a teenager do? They need to post their own ‘resume’ to start, whether they have ever worked. Creating a resume will help the teen to at least translate herself in a business-world friendly way on paper when applying for a job.

There are, however, ways to soften the blow. Have your teen create a résumé, even if he has never worked before, and he’ll have a tool to market himself to employers.

Unlike one for an experienced worker – where the draw for employers may be qualifications – the resume for the teen-without-experience can draw attention to abilities, or extracurriculars, volunteerism, coursework, or projects. A cover letter can talk up things that make an applicant a little more than he appears. Responsibility, reliability, willingness, and eagerness to learn.

As a parent, supporting your teen in their job search can involve:

~Helping them identify potential job opportunities

~Preparing for interviews

~Guiding professional conduct

Teens can network; they can ride piggyback on parents or other family members to secure jobs through friends or neighbors. As a business owner, you can provide teenagers with employment opportunities by providing entry-level jobs and internships. You may not only have the ability to hire teens, you also have the power to encourage their growth by providing the training programs that give teens a positive site to mature within the work environment – by the ‘laundry’ everywhere so deeply rooted. Intentionally, providing the opportunity for teens to take up jobs will not only promote the growth of the local labor force, but also instill the value and the attitude of the adolescent to the future workforce. It’s not merely that you hire the teens, it’s because it is you who can inspire, facilitate, and support them within your programs which will strongly influence how they will lead their lives and their future labor.