COMMISSION 
AGENDA MEMORANDUM                        Item No.          7b 
BRIEFING ITEM                             Date of Meeting      February 11, 2020 
DATE:     January 24, 2020 
TO:        Stephen P. Metruck, Executive Director 
FROM:    Amberine Wilson, HR Outreach Program Manager 
Kim DesMarais, Talent Management Director 
Katie Gerard, Senior Director Human Resources 
SUBJECT:  Youth Internship Programs Update 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 
Last November, Human Resources provided an update to the Commission on the Port's
successful 2018 internship program. At that time, the Commission requested a five-year strategic
plan be completed during 2019. While the initial landscape analysis was complete in 2019, there
is still additional work being done to connect the program to the Workforce Development Policy
Directive and the new Office of Equity Diversity and Inclusion. 
This briefing provides an update on the 2019 youth internship programs and discusses current
priorities and plans for the 2020 program. The strategic plan for connecting the Port's internship
programs to the Port's WFD policy, regional Career Connected Learning (CCL) strategies, and
partners to grow the programs' impact will be discussed at a later date. 
Over the last five years we have hired over 500 youth while making significant progress on the
main goals for the internship program: 
Raise awareness of the Port of Seattle and Port-related Careers 
Build a Diverse Talent Pipeline for the Port and Port-Related Industries 
Lessen the Opportunity Gap Among Youth in King County 
Offer Internships to at least 90 High School and 30 College Students at the Port 
2020 Priorities: 
Prioritize Internship Opportunities Based on Labor Market Data 
Increase number of interns who earn school credit during their internship 
Implement Outcome Metrics Strategy and Produce Benchmark Report 
Launch Community Participatory-Based-Research Pilot to Increase and Measure
Awareness 
Launch Alumni Engagement Pilot Event 
Partner with Workforce Development to Develop Port-Wide Career Connected Learning
Strategy 


Template revised April 12, 2018.

COMMISSION AGENDA  Briefing Item No. 7b                                  Page 2 of 5 
Meeting Date: February 11, 2020 
BACKGROUND 
Career Connected Learning 
Career Connected Learning is a continuum of events and work-related experiences designed to
create meaningful linkages between K-12 education and future employment opportunities. They
are typically broken down into a series of events classified as, "Awareness", "Experiential",
"Preparation", and "Launch". These events build career pipelines or pathways for young people
from an early age. 
Awareness events are most prevalent and diverse as they are creating
introductory-level  exposure  for  young  people  to  regional  industries  and
opportunities. 
Career fairs, industry speakers in classroom settings, worksite tours,
curriculum development and/delivery 
Experiential  events  are  at  the  next  and  more  focused  level  of  learning
opportunities. These traditionally involve short-term, direct interaction with
professionals. 
Networking events, job shadows, work-based problem solving, innovation
challenges, career-prep training 
Preparation events include extended direct interactions with professionals. These
provide supervised practical application of skills and knowledge. 
Worksite learning, internships, youth apprenticeship, career readiness
training 
Launch events prepare youth for employment in a specific range of occupations
and often, but not always, occur after high school. 
Apprenticeships,  college  training  programs/certificates,  vocational
training, clinical experience 
CCL best practice recommends that young people are given multiple opportunities over the
course of their education to be exposed to and get hands on experience with the industries and
career opportunities in their surrounding area. 
Regional Career Connected Learning Landscape 
The systemic development of these pathways in the Puget Sound region can address an acute
and present dilemma  the Workforce Gap. 
There will be 740,000 job openings in Washington State by 2021. Workers with a postsecondary
credential such as a degree, apprenticeship, or certificate, will fill most of those jobs.
However, only 40% of our high school students go on to earn such a credential by age 26. 

Template revised September 22, 2016.

COMMISSION AGENDA  Briefing Item No. 7b                                  Page 3 of 5 
Meeting Date: February 11, 2020 

In short, the jobs are here, but we are not preparing your young people to fill them. 
Career Connected Learning is the effort to close that gap by preparing young people, early and
often, for the workforce they will eventually enter. Our current system keeps employment and
education separate. This is doing a disservice to young people because they are ill-prepared for
the opportunities that surround them. 
CCL pathways connect K-12 education with industry-based experiential learning to make
potential pathways to opportunity more accessible. 
The Port of Seattle is in a unique position to work in this system to create pathways that serve
the community and port-related industries while working to close the achievement gap in
service to equity in the region. 
The Port of Seattle's Internship Programs 
In the last five years, the Port has increased its high school internship program more than 12
times over and it has doubled its college program, while keeping expenses flat. We have done
this with a commitment to continuous process improvement, internal and external
partnerships, direct outreach strategies, and an increase in part-time school year opportunities.
We have also followed research-based best practices to add career awareness events,
networking workshops, team-development and project management opportunities, and an
equity-focus to the programs. 
The Last Five Years have been focused on program development and growth: 
2015        2016        2017          2018               2019 
Summer  Fall   Spring  Summer  Fall 
HS Pilot                                                         11      10                6 
Programs 
High School       8           68          82         81                      79      11
Interns 
College and      26          37          38         49       2       1        49      1 
Graduate
Interns 
Total        34        105       120         143             157 
The question is, how many of those internships lead to jobs? How many of our awareness and
experiential events lead youth to careers in Port-related industries? It is time to focus on
growing the pipelines into these careers and measuring our outcomes. 
A look at the Port's current career connected learning activities, indicates that we should: 

Template revised September 22, 2016.

COMMISSION AGENDA  Briefing Item No. 7b                                  Page 4 of 5 
Meeting Date: February 11, 2020 
Use labor market data to assess the needs of the Port and port-related industries to
inform internship offerings and programing 
Be more internally collaborative in our Port-lead or sponsored CCL events and
programming 
Strengthen and diversify our CCL programs by increasing outreach to community and
partners who connect to regional CCL strategies 
Increase and diversify CCL activities; Involve more departments and divisions across the
Port in CCL activities 
Create space for non-traditional credential holders and job seekers to participate in Port
CCL programming 
Share our lessons learned and successful model with other public agencies to increase
regional impact and capacity

THE NEXT FIVE YEARS: PROGRAM REFINEMENT AND REGIONAL IMPACT 
Vision: 
Our Internship Programs operate within a regional Career Connected Learning strategy to
achieve human resources' and workforce development's missions. Opportunities have a focus
on Port-related sectors, labor market data, community partnerships, equity, and outcome
metrics. The programs are a model of how to build successful career pipelines for maximum
regional impact. 
Overview 
Imagine a Port internship program where all participants are: 
Selected by equity-focused community partners that have already begun training them
on Port-related careers, 
Placed into internships at the Port that build upon that curriculum and provide them
with experiences that offer school credit and transferable skills that help them compete
for in-demand jobs, 
Connected to post-internship opportunities that guide them to the next step in their
career, whether that's an apprenticeship, college, post-secondary program, another
internship, or an entry level job, 
Linked to alumni surveys, engagement events, and social media communications so we
can better track our long-term impact and recruit former interns. 
By eliminating the competitive hiring process, HR can spend more time building community
partnerships and designing quality internship opportunities. We can also develop programs in
partnership with local communities, so they are a part of the design process. By leveraging
partners, we increase equity and impact by providing services both before and after the
internship. 

Template revised September 22, 2016.

COMMISSION AGENDA  Briefing Item No. 7b                                  Page 5 of 5 
Meeting Date: February 11, 2020 
ATTACHMENTS TO THIS BRIEFING 
(1)   Presentation slides 
PREVIOUS COMMISSION ACTIONS OR BRIEFINGS 
November 27, 2018  The Commission was briefed on 2018 program and goals for 2019
program. 
















Template revised September 22, 2016.