Central Minnesota Jobs and Training Services, Inc. (CMJTS) is dedicated to serving young and emerging adults by providing employment and training services that connect them with careers and help them achieve success.
Benefitting from Experience: The knowledgeable staff at CMJTS are dedicated to helping young adults, up to age 24, prepare for the workforce.
Youth employment specialists work with schools, nonprofits, private businesses, and other agencies to assist young people by connecting them with career pathways and increasing their employability and earning potential. This is achieved by providing or connecting participants with the services they need, such as:
- Tutoring and study skills development
- Career pathway and post-secondary training exploration
- Paid and unpaid work experience opportunities and internships
- Job shadowing
- Occupational skills training
- Apprenticeship and/or pre-apprenticeship
- Leadership development
- Adult mentoring
- Financial literacy and budgeting assistance
- Entrepreneurial skills development
- Alternative secondary school services
- Financial assistance
- Follow-up services to ensure continued success
Investing in our workforce with state, federal, and private-sector funding, CMJTS affords youth the opportunity to earn wages, receive academic credit, and obtain experience that will last a lifetime. However, youth are not the only ones with something to gain. Employers also benefit from an improved and expanded talent pipeline. If you are an employer interested in hiring a work-ready young adult, with the support of an employment specialist, we have several options for you, including:
Work Experience/Internship: Your business provides entry-level work and supervision for a designated length of time to a youth or young adult. CMJTS remains the employer of record for the duration of the opportunity. CMJTS pays the participant’s wage, covers all FICA and Worker’s Compensation insurance costs, and submits all of the related paperwork.
Workforce Protégé: Workforce Protégé is a nationally recognized, award-winning internship program developed by CMJTS with the assistance of business leaders. For this enhanced opportunity, the business provides a youth with weekly mentoring in addition to a supervised work opportunity. Protégé focuses on the connection between work and personal success as well as the importance of forming positive relationships with employers and community leaders. Businesses show their investment by sharing in the cost of the participant’s wage while CMJTS remains the employer of record, covers the FICA and Worker’s Compensation insurance cost, and submits all of the related paperwork.
On-the-Job Training (OJT): Your business is reimbursed for the cost of training a new employee—up to 50% of the new employee’s wage for the length of the contract. You do the training and the employee does the learning. Your new hire will learn the skills necessary to succeed in your unique business and industry.
CMJTS provides its nonprofit youth services through the following funding sources:
Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Youth Program: WIOA is a federally-funded program that serves some high school youth, but focuses primarily on serving young adults (ages 16-24) who are not attending high school or college. Program participants will receive hands-on and/or occupational training, will be eligible for financial assistance, and will benefit from the guidance of a skilled employment specialist.
Minnesota Youth Program (MYP): While MYP participants will benefit from the same services as WIOA participants, MYP is a state-funded program focused on serving both in-school and out-of-school youth and young adults ages 14-24. The MYP program also gives CMJTS’ youth employment specialists the opportunity to share employment and career pathway information with students and student groups, through its Outreach-to-Schools offering.
Youth @ Work (Y@W): Y@W is a competitively-awarded program funded by the State of Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development. This program also serves youth and young adults, ages 14-24, and places special emphasis on participation in paid work opportunities.
Minnesota Youthbuild Program: This small, state-funded program provides specialized and hands-on training in the building trades. It also focuses on leadership development and post-secondary exploration for youth who are at-risk of not finishing their diploma/GED. Participants must be attending an Alternative Learning Center or GED/Adult Diploma instruction through Adult Basic Education. CMJTS employment specialists have the ability to help interested applicants connect with these educators.
TANF Innovation Program: This program is a result of a collaboration between the Minnesota Department of Human Services and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. TANF Innovation serves young parents, up to age 24, who are receiving cash assistance through the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP). It also serves children (ages 14-18) from families receiving this assistance. This program focuses on paid work opportunities as well as short-term training opportunities (e.g. nursing assistant certification training, forklift training, etc.) that will elevate the participant’s level of employability.
