Starbucks will hire 10,000 youngsters between the ages of 16-24 who face systemic barriers to meaningful jobs and education, as a key strategy in achieving the company’s previously stated goal of hiring 10,000 Opportunity Youth, and the 1 lakh Opportunities Initiative’s collective goal of hiring 100,000 opportunity youth by 2018.
The company has also announced it will open stores in 15 diverse, low to medium income urban communities across the United States, with at least five stores expected to open in 2016.
Starbucks will open the first of these stores in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago’s south side; the West Florissant neighborhood in Ferguson, Missouri; the Jamaica neighborhood in Queens, New York; and Milwaukee, and will remodel its store at 7th & Camelback in Phoenix.
Each of these locations will have an onsite training space where young people can learn valuable customer service and retail skills, based on the same world-class training Starbucks partners (employees) receive. Starbucks will also partner with local youth services organisations and government to leverage existing programs that help connect youth with internships, apprenticeships and jobs in the community and foster the type of dialogue and engagement needed for continued social change.
Starbucks will hire on average 20 to 25 partners (employees) per store from the local community, providing them training and industry-leading benefits that include the chance to get full tuition coverage to finish an online bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University through the Starbucks College Achievement Plan.