Jobs Program Added to LAUSD Web Site

Los Angeles Unified School District officials have gone digital in their search for a faster, easier way for students to search for jobs and employers to find suitable employees.

“First Break”, a job search and placement program, is the newest addition to the district’s Internet Web site.

“A great percentage of students use the Internet either at school or home,” said Jim Konantz, director of the district’s career development division. “You can sit down and click on something and find out right then who’s offering what job that you are interested in.”’

For the past 20 years, the district worked with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce to provide summer job listings for high school students. Last year, the program listed more than 7,000 part-time jobs, about half of which were filled by students.

The program has been fairly successful, but it has been slow in reaching many students, district officials said. On occasion, by the time students received information in the mail about jobs, the positions had already been filled, said Socorro Serrano, spokesman for the district.

“We replaced a major paper and manual process that is very expensive,” Serrano told a group of employers at a demonstration Wednesday.

“It’s the best thing in terms of getting the information out,” Konantz said.

District officials have already begun training students and counselors at several high schools around the city to access the Web site. Its address is: https://lausd.k12.ca.us/firstbreak

The program is free for employers as well as students and career counselors within the school district. Interested employers are asked to call district officials at (213) 743-5014.