Career Pathways Coach

About the position

The Career Pathways Coach is responsible for developing and coordinating internship opportunities that align with career pathways for college students. This role involves working closely with students, community colleges, education partners, and worksites to ensure that internships provide valuable, hands-on experience in specific career fields. Under the supervision of the Associate Director of College and Career Pathways, the Career Pathways Coach plays a key role in helping students receive valuable work experience by supporting their professional development and connecting them with relevant internship experiences. This position is in partnership with the City of Los Angeles and requires colocation at East Los Angeles College and Los Angeles City College.

Responsibilities

• Develop and coordinate internship opportunities that align with established career pathways for students, ensuring these experiences support both academic and career goals.
• Collaborate with PLN Youth Employment team on program participant onboarding, timesheet collection and payroll distribution.
• Maintain an up-to-date database of internship opportunities and actively promote them to students.
• Coordinate the logistics of internship placements, including matching students with appropriate worksites, managing application processes, and ensuring program eligibility and compliance.
• Provide one-on-one advising to students seeking internships within specific career pathways, helping them identify opportunities that align with their academic and professional goals.
• Assist students in developing professional documents (e.g., resumes, cover letters) tailored to the requirements of specific worksite.
• Offer coaching on job search strategies, interview techniques, and workplace professionalism relevant to their chosen career pathways.
• Support students throughout their internships, including monitoring their progress and addressing any issues or challenges that arise.
• Provide students with supportive services and linkage to internal and partner resources.
• Establish and maintain relationships with worksites to create and promote internship opportunities within specific career pathways.
• Collaborate with employers to design internship programs that meet both their needs and the educational objectives of students.
• Organize and facilitate engagement activities, such as recruitment events, career panels, and networking opportunities focused on specific career pathways.
• Act as a liaison between youth interns and worksites, ensuring that internships are mutually beneficial and that both parties' expectations are met.
• Monitor and support with the evaluation to measure the effectiveness of the internship program, including youth participation, placement success, completion rates, and participant satisfaction.
• Collect data related to internship outcomes, such as internship placement, hours completed, completion rate, student skill development and hires by worksite.
• Gather feedback from students and worksites to identify areas for improvement and to enhance the overall internship experience.
• Prepare regular reports on the performance of the internship program, including metrics related to student success, hours complete, supportive services and worksite engagement.
• Actively promote the internship program to college students, alumni, schools, community partners through various channels, including workshops, newsletters, social media, and classroom presentations.
• Collaborate with Youth Workforce Services staff to identify internship eligible youth.
• Engage with students to ensure equitable access to internship opportunities across all career pathways.
• Organize and conduct workshops and sessions on topics related to career pathways, industry trends, and professional development.
• Collaborate with departments at assigned community college campus to promote internships and learn about opportunities for students.

Requirements

• Minimum of 2 years of experience in career services, college advisement, recruiting, student advising, internship program coordination, or a related field.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to build and maintain relationships with worksites, students, and partner schools.
• Excellent organizational and project management skills.
• Knowledge of career pathways, labor market trends, and industry-specific internship standards preferred.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.

Benefits

• 401k
• health_insurance
• dental_insurance
• vision_insurance
• paid_holidays
• tuition_reimbursement
• professional_development