Year Up.  Remember it and look it up and tell some kid who doesn’t know what to do with his or her life to find it and do it because the program works. It is the one place that is paying people to learn and at the end of the program with skills in demand learned, provides internships in good companies where they will be needed, welcomed and wanted. That is the way a job search should be and finally a corporate executive stepped up to the plate and offered a program to connect jobs needed with those people willing to learn how to do the job.

We still are living in a time of high unemployment and hundreds and thousands of good jobs available with no one around with the skills to do the jobs needed. Yes, in this world of all kinds of technical devices being created every day,   we need people that know what the hell to do with the things that have so many capabilities. We need more people to know how to use these devices more effectively. A basic high school education with good grades in math and English and science just is not enough. We need kids in the workforce that know how to repair a computer or even know how to behave in public. We need a belt on your pants man. Cover up those breasts  girl and look at someone in the eye with a smile and a handshake for starters. All those ghetto fun videos you have been studying to learn how to be hip or cool will not fill up your bank account and pay your rent. It is time our nation’s kids actually learned something the workforce needs. Skills.

There is a Wall Street veteran who realized that there is a overlooked possible source of talent out there of untapped resources for America’s workforce. They are America’s forgotten children. All the kids born from not so stable families who are now 18 and not even eligible for foster care or the limited help welfare offers children from parents who never were any kind of useful parent anyway. There is still a way to stop these young adults destined for a life of crime or tied down by a slew of unwanted children or at least families of their own that they do not have the resources to raise their own kids in a good home. The cycles of neglect need to be stopped in America.

Year Up is a jobs training program that goes on for a year designed to help some of the most disadvantaged kids in the country. So far now thousands of graduates are now working for companies like JPMorgan, American Express and Facebook. The result is that America’s most powerful CEO’s are finding that they can get back from what they invest in. The workforce. Yes, the big shots are funding the program and the kids training and in return are getting well qualified workers for the specialized jobs that need to be filled at their companies.

Call it corporate boot camp with crash courses from everything from building the insides of a computer to the basics of accounting balance sheets. They will learn to work together, be polite, arrive at work on time respect    other’s personal space with no room for attitude. They wear suits and ties and business skirts and blouses. Yes the clothes cannot erase the hardships the young adults have already faced in their first 20 years of their lives. All have been part of things like poverty, drug abuse, foster care and shelters. Think of something horrible a child could face these kids have been there and done it. Now it is time for them to try something really different. Respect, care, education and most of all something real to look forward to.

Amongst the poorest people in the country is an untapped source of talent. They might be full of street wise attitude at first but deep down a majority of the young adults growing up in isolated poverty  in our inner cities want opportunity, want to be challenged and want to be held to high expectations and are motivated to get a good job. They are used to being dared to do stuff.  They are untapped, unspoiled new minds. That have become the forgotten population of the country.

Corporations are paying Year Up $23,000dollars per intern CEO Jaime Diamond says that the 300 interns his company has taken on in their operations, retail and technology divisions provide the firm with a well-trained pool of   talent. Yes, money well spent as an investment into good workers .One of the biggest expenses for any company is when they hire the wrong people and have to deal with all the problems from a bad employee. If you can start with well-trained talented people who crave a job, it is a win   for all concerned.

Beyond the technical training the social skills of corporate behavior is equally important. We know that you hire for skills but you fire for bad behavior. The only requirement for Year Up is a high   school diploma or GED and a commitment to be able to attend classes. During orientation everyone is encouraged to tell their story no matter what hardships they have faced in their young past. Communication is key to resolving any emotional issues haunting them. This all sounds pretty good to me. So, If you see a troubled kid somewhere , after you see if you still have your wallet, talk to the kid and tell them to investigate the Year Up program and try doing something else in their lives besides get in trouble.