It is unfortunate that for many teens, the only thing they’ll be working on this summer is their tans or curveballs or video game skills. Statistically, about 40 percent of America’s teens work during the summer break.
That is unfortunate. While we don’t begrudge students a break from their academic work, we believe there is much to say for using the summer to gain experience for the real world of work they will soon enter once their school days have ended.
This is not simply conjecture. A 2013 Brookings Institute study found that finding a job as an adult is harder for those who did not work during their teen years. The study also found that kids who worked in high school earned wages that were 10 to 15 percent higher after graduating from college.
While education prepares young people for a life of work, there is no substitute for personal experience. There are things that can only be learned in the workplace itself, lessons that provide benefits in other areas of adult life.
A summer job may last only a couple of months, but the lessons learned can last a lifetime.
These are fundamental lessons: Showing up on time, being prepared, taking direction, meeting goals, working with others, solving problems and any number of other experiences a person typically encounters during the work day.
For many, the wages they earn from their summer jobs are their first exposure to the idea of money management. The relationship between work and money is often best understood when the young person’s access to the latter is based on the former. Money earned “by the sweat of the brow” is far more likely to be managed wisely. There are few lessons that are more important.
Even the pursuit of that summer job is valuable experience. Being able to market themselves to potential employers is a skill today’s young people will need later in life. Being able to persevere in the job hunt after being rejected is a real-world issue almost every adult will face as well.
For many, those rejections may awake an entrepreneurial spirit. It may mean creating your own job. The teen who can’t get a job at a pet store may start her own dog-walking or pet-sitting service. The boy who can’t get a job at an auto shop might do well with his own car-detailing service. If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, an enterprising teen may earn money by mowing that grass.
Even non-paying jobs provide many benefits. Local charities are a good way to learn the importance of volunteering, which is something future employers almost always find attractive in a job candidate.
We encourage all teens to actively pursue work this summer. We also implore businesses to make room for those young people. It benefits the business and the community.
We want our young people to be well prepared for the adult world. That’s why we send them to school, after all.
As has been said, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. So, too, is a summer.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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