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Corporate Social Responsibility
News
10.06.2008 - 09:57am ET
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CSR News from:
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AT&T Inc.
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AT&T, Junior Achievement Launch Nationwide Job Shadow Initiative to Help Prepare 100,000 Students for the World of Work
Program Is Part of $100 Million AT&T Aspire Initiative to Promote High School Success and Workforce Readiness
(CSRwire) DALLAS, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In an effort to encourage American
high school students to stay in school and increase their competitiveness
with counterparts from other countries, AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Junior
Achievement today announced the launch of a multimillion-dollar, multiyear
job shadow initiative that will match 100,000 students with more than
50,000 AT&T employees to help strengthen student success and workforce
readiness.
The five-year, $5.5 million initiative formally kicks off today in Dallas,
where students from Adamson High School will join forces with AT&T
executives, including AT&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Randall
Stephenson. With 1.2 million American students dropping out of high school
every year, initiatives such as the AT&T/JA Worldwide Job Shadow teach
students about careers and help them see firsthand the educational
background and skills they will need to succeed on the job.
"One of the best ways we can help our young people succeed in high school
is to ensure that they see the connection between what they learn in
school and what's required in the workplace," said Stephenson. "Here in
Dallas and across our company, the people of AT&T are proud to join forces
with Junior Achievement to help students make that connection and go on to
build great careers."
The AT&T/JA Worldwide Job Shadow is committing 400,000 employee volunteer
hours to reach 100,000 students in grades 9-12. The program will bring
students into the world of business through classroom instruction followed
by on-site mentoring in which students get to interact with a wide range of
AT&T employees including technical and customer service representatives,
product and service managers, and marketing and advertising executives.
In this comprehensive effort, local Junior Achievement offices will work
closely with local AT&T operations to set up job shadow opportunities
between students and AT&T employees at AT&T facilities.
"No matter what career they ultimately choose, the JA Job Shadow
experience helps kids become 'work ready' by taking them into the
workplace and showing them how education and training translate to success
on the job," said Sean C. Rush, president and CEO of JA Worldwide.
"Seventy-nine percent of students participating in job shadowing report
that the program increased their desire to stay in school, so this is
clearly a proven way to improve high school success."
Through the job shadow opportunity, Rush added, students experience some
of the interpersonal nuances of the workplace that are difficult to grasp
in a classroom setting, such as the importance of negotiation, teamwork,
cooperation with others, decision making and problem solving. Following
participation in the initiative, students will be able to identify and
demonstrate the work-readiness skills needed to research, get and keep a
job -- as well as develop personal strategies to achieve lifelong learning
pursuits and career opportunities.
The job shadow initiative is part of the recently announced AT&T Aspire
program, one of the largest-ever corporate commitments to high school
retention and workforce readiness. The initiative is designed to support
proven approaches to promoting educational success, from the classroom to
the workplace.
Through the Aspire initiative, AT&T has committed $100 million (over four
years, 2008-2011) to a range of efforts that includes: - Grants to
schools and nonprofit organizations that are focused on helping students
graduate from high school and become better prepared for college and/or
the workforce.
- The underwriting of national research that will explore the
perspectives and best practices of practitioners (teachers, principals,
superintendents, school counselors and school board members) on the high
school dropout issue.
- Support for 100 state and community dropout prevention summits,
organized by America's Promise Alliance to engage education experts and
community leaders around the crisis and ways to address it.
Two of the
major unions representing AT&T's employees, the Communications Workers of
America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, are
supporting the job shadow initiative.
Junior Achievement is a recognized leader in job shadowing and a key
member of the National Job Shadow Coalition, which also includes AT&T, the
U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Labor and America's
Promise Alliance. The AT&T program is the largest-ever corporate job
shadow collaboration Junior Achievement has undertaken.
For more information about the AT&T Aspire initiative, please visit http://www.att.com/education-news.
About JA Worldwide(R) (Junior Achievement)
JA Worldwide is the world's largest organization dedicated to inspiring
and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. Through a
dedicated volunteer network, JA Worldwide provides in-school and
after-school programs for students which focus on three key content areas:
entrepreneurship, work readiness, and financial literacy. Today, 138
individual area operations reach more than four million students in the
United States, with an additional 4.3 million students served by
operations in 118 other countries worldwide. For more information, visit
http://www.ja.org.
About Philanthropy at AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is committed to advancing education, strengthening
communities and improving lives. Through its philanthropic initiatives and
partnerships, AT&T supports projects that create learning opportunities;
promote academic and economic achievement; and address community needs. In
2007, AT&T contributed more than $164 million through corporate-, employee-
and AT&T Foundation-giving programs. AT&T and the AT&T Foundation, the
corporate philanthropy organization of AT&T, combine more than $1.9
billion of historic charitable commitment to communities across the
country.
(C) 2008 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T
logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T
Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies.
Note: This AT&T news release and other announcements are available as part
of an RSS feed at http://www.att.com/rss. For more
information, please review this announcement in the AT&T newsroom at http://www.att.com/newsroom.
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