The City of Santa Monica Information Systems, Community and Cultural Services, and Housing and Economic Development departments have collaborated to launch a new program to facilitate career opportunities in technology for Santa Monica youth. The program will also assist in developing the city’s tech workforce for the growing number of tech companies launching in Santa Monica. Santa Monica’s Youth Technology Program places 12 students in a one week technology rotation to review specialized IT functions within an enterprise operating environment.
Students will then spend five weeks experiencing the excitement and challenges of launching a successful start-up within the supportive environment of Coloft, a Santa Monica tech incubator that is the venue of a number of successful start-ups.
“This program will connect local youth with their government and provide them with skills they need for jobs in the local tech economy,” said Jory Wolf, Chief Information Officer for the City of Santa Monica. “With the tech sector rapidly developing into one of the most important segments of our local economy, what better way to sustain it than to grow our own local tech workforce?”
The goal of the six-week program is to provide an overview and real life work experience in Information Technology to a group of Santa Monica’s graduating high school seniors. Program members will be invited back the following summer after their first year of college for an internship opportunity with a Santa Monica tech company.
“Innovative education and youth development requires real work experience and skills-building opportunities for teens. The city’s new Youth Technology pilot program is an exciting example of this type of innovative education. Capitalizing on the creative and vibrant technology community in Santa Monica, this program will engage students with hands-on projects and expose them to career opportunities in IT and private tech start-up ventures,” said Julie Rusk, City of Santa Monica Human Services Manager.
The Youth Technology Program offers experience in the following areas:
· Municipal Government Operations
· Enterprise Technology in the Public Sector
· Strategies for Startups
· Venture Capital Firm Decision Making
· Intellectual Property Rights
· Business Risks
· Team Building and Collaboration
· Web Development
Graduating high school students who are residents of Santa Monica may apply online at www.smgov.net/youthtech. Applicants must apply online before May 20, 2012 for consideration in the 2012 summer program.
