Employers Go Back to the Future to Fill Temporary Slots : Summer jobs: Local high school students provide an overlooked pool of employees and gain much-needed experience while learning work ethic.

Getting good, temporary help quickly can often be a troublesome task for employers, but many San Diego businesses have been filling their employment needs by tapping into tomorrow’s work force: local youth.

Whether it’s a hotelier who needs extra manpower at the front desk, a marketing firm that needs help conducting a public opinion poll, or a manufacturer who needs a delivery person, the San Diego Consortium & Private Industry Council encourages local businesses that need summer help to turn to its Hire-A-Youth Program.

Since 1983, the council--a coalition of private business leaders, county and city officials, and educators--has been matching employers’ needs with youthful workers’ skills and abilities.

The 7-year-old program, which is jointly sponsored by the state Employment Development Department, has provided local businesses with nearly 57,000 young workers. And most have made their employers happy: A survey of 50 randomly selected employers who participated in Hire-A-Youth last year showed that 95% would hire through the program again.

But, these days, Hire-A-Youth officials say, employers have a responsibility to use the program. Program advocates say the business community must address critics’ complaints about ill-prepared, uninspired youth, and help train and educate them to ensure a viable future work force.

“We’ve left educators to worry about and solve the many problems that plague our youth, but then we complain about them when they turn 18 and show up on our doorsteps,” said Reint Reinders, general manager of the La Jolla Marriott and chairman of the Hire-A-Youth program.

“Many businesses can always use temporary help, others might be expanding certain operations and could take on a few more hires. . . we’re asking those people to hire a youth,” Reinders said. “And, even if they don’t have a pressing need, we’re asking people to see if they can create a slot.”

Program officials are asking private employers to provide youngsters, ages 14-21, jobs that would last a minimum of six weeks, 20 hours each week and pay $5.00 an hour. “It would only cost $600,” Reinders added.”

Hire-A-Youth is counting on the private sector to provide 4,000 jobs this summer, said Margie Rosas, the program’s coordinator at the Private Industry Council.

But Rosas said the Private Industry Council will be able to offer an additional 2,550 government-subsidized jobs funded by the federal Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), which helps finance job training for low-income, disadvantaged youth. This year, the Hire-A-Youth program has been allocated $3.4 million in federal funds.

Under the program’s more structured subsidized component, Rosas said, Hire-A-Youth officials are able to raise youngsters’ awareness of the link between education and a good job.

Individuals who meet JTPA criteria are given a minimum of eight hours of “labor market orientation” that teaches job interviewing skills, goal-planning, and the importance of proper dress and behavior in the workplace. But, more important, Rosas said, applicants are given a standardized test that measures competence in English comprehension and mathematics.

Those who lack such basic skills “spend half the day in a summer school remedial education program and spend the other half at a job,” Rosas said.

“The objective here is to provide more than just a summer job,” Rosas said. “It’s one way to help make sure tomorrow’s work force is educated properly. The kids find out what they have to know to be able to join the work force.”

Under the subsidized component, youngsters typically land clerical, computer, maintenance and writing work at local government departments or at private, nonprofit organizations. Such jobs provide a minimum of 180 hours of work at minimum wage, $4.25 an hour.

Ann Burr, president of Southwestern Cable TV, says this summer will be the fourth time her company has participated in Hire-A-Youth. Burr has offered youngsters a variety of jobs at her company, including positions in cable equipment repair, warehouse receiving and distribution, public affairs and marketing.

Burr said she’s already witnessed the program’s short- and long-term benefits.

“We’ve placed people in the marketing department, where they’ve helped us conduct telephone surveys, or helped us research and develop a position paper which we used to decide whether we should proceed with a particular project,” Burr said.

“It’s an opportunity for us to offer a youth their first, positive work experience and maybe they’ll come back to the industry they worked in.”

Through the Hire-A-Youth program, Tony Zych got a job repairing cable converters at Southwestern Cable two years ago.

“It gave me a chance to get my feet in the door and show what I could do,” said Zych, 21, who received electronics training at Mira Mesa High School. When Zych graduated, Southwestern Cable offered him a permanent job.

Last year, Jesse Wesley, 17, a junior at Gompers Secondary School Center for Mathematics, Science and Computer Technology in Southeast San Diego, won a job.

The Hire-A-Youth program aggressively publicizes to schools and last year launched its Win-A-Job campaign last year. The creative recruiting method asks students to describe their career ambitions through an essay, poem or artistic display. The top three finishers in each category win jobs.

“If a teen-ager goes out and tries to get a job on his own, there’s a good chance he’s going to end up” at a fast food restaurant, Wesley said. “The Hire-A-Youth program let’s you find out about different careers,” said Wesley, who said he improved his communication skills by conducting public opinion surveys for Pacific Group Telemarketing.

Wesley, who aspires to become an astronaut or work in aerospace engineering, is hoping one of the local engineering or defense companies participates in the Hire-A-Youth program this summer. “It would give me a glimpse at my career,” Wesley said. “It would be a wonderful opportunity.”