Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. is teaming up with the city of Stamford”™s youth employment program to urge high school students to explore possible careers ”” not necessarily in hospitality ”” but in digital media.
Of the 1,100 employees working at the company”™s Stamford headquarters, more than 400 either work in information technology or digital media, said Ken Siegel, Starwood”™s chief administrative officer. And with another 80 positions in digital media to fill, Siegel said there”™s a great need for more skilled workers to help improve the company”™s growing digital platforms for reservations, websites and mobile devices.
“We can”™t find enough people to work for us in Stamford in IT and digital,” Siegel said. “So we decided one of the great ways to solve that would be to partner up with the mayor and Sacred Heart University to teach students about the digital world.”
Stamford Mayor Michael A. Pavia launched the city”™s youth employment program two years ago and has since more than doubled its class size. In 2011, about 35 students participated in the paid summer work program and this year 75 students will participate.
Recognizing that in a down economy high school students and youth might be in competition with unemployed adults for many jobs, Pavia launched the youth employment program to ensure those students would still have work opportunities.
The program matches high school juniors and seniors with summer jobs in fields they”™re interested in and pays them about $10 an hour to work for six weeks.
To entice students to consider careers in digital media, Starwood will employ about 20 of the students this summer after they”™ve completed a three-week training course taught by instructors at Sacred Heart University.
Adding to Stamford”™s growing emphasis on digital media, Sacred Heart recently launched its new graduate center in downtown Stamford and will begin offering classes for its flagship digital marketing master”™s degree program in August.
“We”™re going to give students a taste for what we do in a field that every major corporation is looking to staff,” Siegel said. “We think this is a big deal for the state. This is a key way to drive employment because we know everyone is looking for these people.”
Siegel said the company will likely hire students who go through the program after they graduate. He hopes that will inspire others to pursue advanced degrees in the field as well.
If the program is a success, Siegel said Starwood plans to expand the program into other communities, possibly make it year-round and include more than just high school students in the training.
“You see these kids out there but you never know what their ambitions are unless you give them the opportunity,” Pavia said. “When they leave (the program) they”™re different people: mature, confident, insightful and they have a clear impression of where they need to go in life and how to get there.”
Reflecting on the long-term goals of the program, Pavia said in every adolescent”™s life, there is a fork in the road where he or she can either take the right or the wrong path.
“When you have young, vulnerable kids, you want to be there to provide them something that is going to help them go in the right direction,” he said. “This clearly does that. It”™s overwhelmingly successful in that regard.”
