Remember what it was like getting your first job? Thinking through what would you wear the first day, or how you would interact with your new colleagues? Would you be up for the new challenges that would be put before you? Most importantly, would you like it?

After all, it’s your future. But the future of a company is also at stake, too.

For eight weeks this summer, 18 young people experienced what their future could look and feel like by participating in the first year of the Memphis Youth Career Development Program. The program, launched as a joint partnership between the Greater Memphis Chamber and engine manufacturer Cummins Inc., is aimed at developing employable, manageable, prepared individuals who are ready to succeed in the workforce.

The program, hosted by Cummins in a conference room inside its Southeast Memphis facility, turned out to be much more than a simple exercise in learning how to work. It also became an opportunity to instill a sense of community and inspire leadership.

“They are all CEOs,” said Delories Williams, Managing Director of Workforce Development for the Chamber, who created the program. “That’s what we told them at the beginning. They were in charge of their destiny and were about to get the best tools ever to shape it.”

The pilot program was born of the continuing need to ensure Memphis workers have the needed skills to meet requirements of local employers who would otherwise import high-value technical labor into the region.

Williams, appointed to her post in December 2008, aimed to construct a high-quality program to ensure the needs of both workers and employers were met.

“People come to businesses every day to fill out applications but don’t have proper interviewing skills, don’t dress appropriately, don’t know how to fill out applications and don’t know how to say the right things,” Williams says. By contrast, she said, program participants “will know how to do all this and experience the real workplace.”

During each week, the summer youth program provided participants with career readiness and employability skills through a highly structured, comprehensive approach. “There was an employee agreement with guidelines stating what was appropriate and not appropriate in the workplace,” Williams said. Students “worked” from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. four days a week, receiving a “paycheck” for their participation.

Training sessions carried titles such as “Exploring the World of Employment,” “Empowerment through Financial Management,” “Effective Communication,” “Developing Skills to Resolve Conflict and Create Solutions,” “Health, Wellness and Fitness Life Styles,” “Becoming the Best You,” and “Creating the Best You.”

With each week’s emphasis came opportunities to learn from business and community leaders. While learning about financial planning and budgeting, for instance, students heard from SunTrust Bank President and CEO Johnny B. Moore, who shared with them the importance of credit scores and keeping good finances, along with how he built his own successful career.
Students also took part in a CEO Roundtable held at the Chamber’s offices. They prepared extensively by studying the backgrounds of a variety of the city’s corporate leaders, and Williams coached them on everything from devising good questions to the particulars of dress code.

Corporate leaders such as Moore, developer Henry Turley and Chamber CEO and President John W. Moore walked into the Chamber’s board room to find a group of smartly dressed, attentive young people. During his lively question-and-answer session, for example, Turley explained how students could benefit from his approach, which he used to begin building downtown decades ago when others were not.

“What are people not doing that the city needs?” Turley asked them. He enjoyed the students’ company so much that he stuck around for lunch and informal conversation.

Other field trips — all of which were keyed to special assignments — included a trip to Nashville to visit the General Assembly, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Vanderbilt, Tennessee State University, Fisk University and Meltarry Medical College.

During the program, students were also taught to give back to their community, selecting the Memphis Food Bank to support by bringing food donations every two weeks.

“They were instructed to purchase the foods and bring in the receipt; they could not get the item from their parents’ pantry,” Williams said. “This taught them the responsibility and how to give to others. They also agreed to take the change from an items purchased out of the (Cummins) vending machine and give it to the Food Bank, too.”

Participants also agreed to pay 50 cents per word each time they did not speak correct English. (At a closing ceremony, the food bank was presented with a check for more than $360.)
Members of the program’s inaugural class found that they could find success and satisfaction with creative ambition.

“My grammar has improved, for one thing,” said Jarico Hall, an 11th grader at Kirby High School. “But I’ve learned so much more – how to work a job and approach my elders, how to talk to my friends. I’m eager to go to college.”

Hall says he is interested in studying marketing and design. But he, like the others, was able to stretch out over the summer and explore a wide array of career possibilities.

“I’ve learned a lot of ways I can achieve the goals that I’ve set for myself,” said Anthony Harden, a Bartlett High School 11th grader who just might be your pet’s veterinarian in a few years. “We did a career program that helped us define where we want to go. The results came back that I would be good working in the field of medicine for animals.”

At a closing awards ceremony held in July at Cummins, company executive Fred Williams told a room full of proud parents and dignitaries that the program has allowed him to see “tremendous potential — not just in the workforce but in the community. We’re going to do it again next year.”

Meanwhile, Williams plans to continue to follow each students’ progress in school, and seeks to secure mentors for each participant. “Each participant is expected to raise their GPAs one letter grade and to apply their skills and lessons they’ve learned,” she said.

The hope is that the students will return for the next level, even as a new group comes in for the initial program. And because the 2010 pilot program proved so promising, and the need so enormous, the 2011 program hopes to bring in 60 students plus offer job shadowing/internships relating to their particular career interests.

As she refines the program and follows up with this year’s students, Williams will also be talking to companies about sponsorships, encouraging them to help with funding and reminding them that the future of Memphis is coming through her program.

Speaking at the ceremony, Chamber president and CEO John Moore told this year’s participants: “The ability to train your mind, body and soul to be the best you means you can achieve your goals, contribute to society and make an impact. You are going to become leaders.”

Williams meanwhile, will be hitting the circuit even as she refines the program and follows up with this year’s youth. She will be talking to companies about sponsorships, encouraging them to help with funding and reminding them that their emerging Memphis workforce is coming through the MYCD Program.

Williams passion for the youth is easy to see, “I am preparing them for their future and helping them develop their M.I.N.D. – Managing Input Navigating Destiny” she said with a smile.