SKILLS FOR SUCCESS

Before rolling up his sleeves for a summer job, 15-year-old Juan Marquez spent a week in the classroom in Clovis. He wrote a résumé, filled out a job application, had a mock job interview and practiced responsible work habits.

Marquez was one of 450 students in 11 counties to take part in job skills training developed by NMSU's Cooperative Extension Service. The coursework on how to find and keep jobs was a first-ever addition to the New Mexico Department of Labor's Summer Youth Employment Training Program. The 14- to 21-year-olds were selected based on family income, family size and grade point average.

Once he finished job skills classes, Marquez spent six weeks applying the lessons, working at the Clovis Community College snack bar. But organizers hope the training will help him beyond the duties of stocking, filling orders and ringing up sales for a summer paycheck.

"We all need to know where to look for jobs, how to be successful applicants and how to manage ourselves on the job so we become strong, valuable employees," says Wendy Hamilton, state 4-H youth specialist and project coordinator. "Another goal is to help young people find working role models so that they're prepared for the future."

Hamilton drew on 4-H materials and the national 4-H Workforce Preparedness Program to create the training curriculum, which included classroom activities, written information and goal-setting and writing exercises.

On his last day at work, Marquez gave both his job and the coursework high marks. "Before this summer, I didn't know about coming to interviews or applications and résumés," the Clovis High sophomore says. "It's been good to work. I had fun, and I've really gotten to meet a lot of people."

On training surveys, most students in the program reported learning a substantial amount about potential careers, where to find job leads and how to be successful on the job.

Only 25 percent of students thought they were well-informed about potential careers before the classes; afterward, 76 percent said they were. Before training, 15 percent said they knew a lot about writing a résumé or a letter of application. Afterward, rates for both skyrocketed to more than 80 percent. The number of students who said they knew a lot about how to find a job rose by about the same margin.

Some of the most important lessons may not have been academic. In instructor Alvonna Arnold's Portales classroom, rival gang members spent the first morning flashing signs and hostile looks at each other. By the end of the week, kids from both groups were cooperating on assignments.

To improve the training next year, organizers want to keep classes small and offer more topics and activities so teachers can adapt materials to students' needs. Rather than offering all the coursework up front, they hope to alternate classes with on-the-job experience, giving students a chance to apply information as they go.

Clint Harden, New Mexico's secretary of labor, says Extension's educational expertise and network of offices throughout the state made the organization a natural choice to provide training.

"Coming from rural New Mexico and knowing the Extension Service and how it works and the courses they have to offer, I was pleased that we could include them in this. It's a new partnership," he says