Career Readiness Counselor
Reports to: College & Career Persistence Manager Status: Full-Time, Exempt
(Please note: This role is hybrid. Candidate must be prepared to work in the office 5 days a month.)
At the Social Justice Learning Institute, we are dedicated to improving the education, health, and well-being of youth of color by empowering them to enact social change through research, training and community mobilization. We train students to conduct research on problems in their community using a rigorous yearlong curriculum while providing basic academic support (i.e., tutoring, homework assistance, academic counseling, etc.) and college preparatory education. SJLI’s youth learn what it takes to achieve academically in order to go to college and become civically engaged, solution oriented and critical participants in the democratic experience. SJLI envisions an educational system where youth become engaged citizens who discover their best talents and apply them to help improve the world they live within.
Job Summary:
The Career Readiness Counselor is responsible for providing our Alumni a wealth of useful information in key areas for workforce success, creating programming and training that utilizes well researched solutions to give SJLI Alumni the necessary skills and certifications to get gainfully employed into a career, start & establish a business, and even have a space for business incubation and skill development. For career pathway development, the Counselor will work with various partners, government agencies, local businesses, job training entities and potential employers to identify and build job and career opportunities for our SJLI youth program participants and alumni. These services and activities will be coordinated across Los Angeles County.
This candidate must manage a caseload of our alumni (ages 18 thru 24). The caseload will comprise of young adults who are unemployed and need training and guidance to their career pathway, those who need support on how to resume their education while working, and those who are currently on a two- or four-year post-secondary education pathway to career or entrepreneurship. Importantly, this position is also responsible for tracking our alumni on their career path and collecting data on youth being served. The Career Readiness Counselor will keep track of where our alumni are on their journey. This position will also work with the College & Career Persistence Manager to create a report that reflects the current landscape of our efforts towards postsecondary planning and career pathway development for graduating SJLI youth program scholars.
Position Summary:
This role will provide individual and group interventions for SJLI youth and alumni focused on 3 key areas:
Equitable Employment
Providing accredited training, programming, and pathways for those that desire to further their careers and become gainfully employed in a career including co-creating a plan for post-secondary planning for graduating seniors. This program provides a range of youth development services to promote access to and persistence in college and a successful career.
Equitable Entrepreneurship
Teaching and training entrepreneurial leaders that will create profitable businesses, large and/or small, for-profit or non-profit, that in turn gainfully employ and strengthen the communities they exist in by circulating wealth and creating opportunities.
Asset Ownership
Alleviate the financial literacy & wealth accumulation gaps by lowering the barriers to financial education, financial counseling, and equity ownership.
Responsibilities:
- Work in collaboration with College & Career Persistence Manager to coordinate a plan to support SJLI alumni's success in the workforce and/or persistence through their college while working.
- Provide targeted outreach, engagement and education activities to Urban Scholar Alumni to increase education, economic viability, and personal resilience.
- Maintain an attitude of professionalism, collegiality, and optimism with both staff and youth to promote the welfare and well-being of the youth
- Cultivate a working knowledge and relationship with relevant community resources to create linkages that meet the needs of the young adults
- Coordinate, plan and implement activities, events and workshops.
- Guide Out of School Alumni back to school or Unemployed Urban Scholars Alumni into their desired career fields
Career Pathway Development
- Guide Alumni in determining their interests and abilities using a wide range of methods, such as aptitude assessments, interviews and planning materials
- Counsel Alumni, working with them to aid in the development of both hard and soft skill
- Conduct group workshops on a variety of topics, including writing resumes and cover letters, successful job interviewing, using university employment databases and career development resources, researching graduate programs, and more
- Support workforce partnership development
- Act as a liaison between Urban Scholars Students, Urban scholars Alumni and work related opportunities.
- Coordinate 1 on 1's with Urban Scholars alumni to provide additional job, internship, & other work-related application assistance.
- Coordinate, plan and implement activities, events and workshops that give Alumni exposure to various career paths
- Create and direct youth to soft & hard skills training programs that teach skills needed to be efficient at any job as well as specific skills for certain types of jobs
- Provide a safe productive space for ambitious self-starters to develop their ideas into concepts and develop those concepts into functional businesses
- Create a business curriculum that will teach youth the ins and outs of business as well as how to start and operate them at a high level
- provide necessary resources for youth to start a business legitimately and get a great running start, surrounding them with high-quality relatable mentors who care deeply about their success and understand how it relates to the community at large
- Facilitate skills and talent workshops to develop other skills that are relevant to operating a business such as software engineering, marketing, management, business development, etc
- Create opportunities and/or establish relationships that can provide In-depth financial literacy education and training and an understanding on the importance of ownership in the community
- Create opportunities and/or establish relationships that provide a pool of financial equity tools & professionals in various fields that will assist and consult with the youth to help them along their journey of acquiring equity
- Other duties as assigned
Data Tracking and Reporting
- Maintain consistent contact with Urban Scholars Alumni.
- Update database that tracks Urban Scholars Alumni college &/or career status
- Updates student data information on a bi-monthly basis
- Document phone calls/email correspondence pertaining to Urban Scholars Alumni progress
- Maintain Urban Scholar Seniors and SJLI alumni student records.
- Generate monthly reports updating status of client caseload.
Knowledge, skills and abilities:
- Exceptional interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills
- Has a social justice framework and is knowledgeable of the tenets of equity.
- Able to demonstrate a commitment to the goals, guidelines, and principles the Social Justice Learning Institute
- Able to maintain confidentiality
- Possesses a valid California Driver’s License
- Able to obtain a live scan clearance
- Availability to occasionally work on weeknights and weekends
- Able to form strong relationships with a wide range of constituents, including, but not limited to, parents, students, staff and leadership
- Ability to collaborate in a team environment
- Experience in working with young people from the youth development perspective
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in education, psychology, social welfare, or related field AND/OR 2 – 5 years of experience in a similar non-profit role.