Career Readiness

Career Crosswalks is designed to increase awareness of professional opportunities in economics among underrepresented minority and women undergraduate students pursuing related majors. Guided by Cleveland Fed research analysts, Career Crosswalks provides targeted Fourth District universities the opportunity to build consistent relationships with young professionals already in their field of study through on campus bimonthly “town hall” style interactions.

This program was piloted in fall 2023. Be on the lookout for future announcements coming soon. Contact Sam Tyler at Samantha.tyler@clev.frb.org with any questions.

Spearheaded by Cleveland Fed president Loretta J. Mester and held in partnership with five other Federal Reserve Banks—Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Richmond, and San Francisco—the Fed Future Professionals Program (Fed Futures) is designed to introduce students to careers in the financial industry.

Fed Futures combines scaffolded curricula and activities created by the Federal Reserve System to provide skills development, training, and professional mentoring that highlights career paths in finance and economics. This year-round paid preparatory program is designed to broaden the pool of future interns and employee candidates in the finance and economics fields throughout the Federal Reserve System.

The program consists of three student cohorts from the Fourth Federal Reserve District (Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia) who will participate in and receive.

• seven live virtual professional-development sessions
• an eight-week summer job-shadowing experience
• biweekly mentoring from a Bank professional throughout the program

Applications are accepted annually in February, and the program starts in October. For questions about this program, email Davonta Milbry at davonta.milbry@cle.frb.org.

Fed Operations, launched in 2019, professional development experience to help Fourth District residents plan for their futures. Fed Operations offers two tracks of professional development: one for high school students looking for careers that don’t require a four-year college degree, the other for employees of the Cleveland Fed’s operations staff (cash services, IT, law enforcement, and facilities) who want to learn about other career pathways and career mobility.

Participants hear from members of the community, Cleveland Fed employees, and education partners about career options and needed skills. Each session relates to jobs at the Cleveland Fed. The Fed Operations program is based on the Cleveland Fed’s research on opportunity occupations.

Contact Elle Benak-Dammarell at elle.benak@clev.frb.org with any questions.

The Cleveland Fed’s Essential Skills Academy aims to help undergraduate students in the Fourth District gain skills beneficial in the workplace. Through mentoring by a Cleveland Fed educator and other Bank employees and through hands-on experiential learning in seven workshops during the academic year, college students develop essential skills they can use for a confident, effective transition into the workplace.

The program provides students with instruction on best practices in looking for and beginning a new job and offers practice and feedback on practical skills such as resume writing and interviewing. Over the course of the of the school year, undergraduates participate in workshops covering the following topics:

• finding a career path
• employability skills
• networking
• public speaking
• personal finance
• one’s role in the economy
• diversity, equity, and inclusion

Essential Skills Academy is presented virtually, via Zoom, with possible in-person sessions by special arrangement. The program is structured to accommodate the schedules of both students and facilitators.

For questions about this program, email Lakisha Higgins at lakisha.higgins@cleve.frb.org.

You Make I.T. Better allows high school students from targeted Fourth District high schools to explore careers in information technology, information security, and computer science through three classroom visits during which students participate in hands-on skills-building activities with STEM professionals from the Cleveland Fed.

Students are then invited to a job shadowing event at the Bank when they will get to select a more-specialized career pathway and Bank employee to shadow. Students network with professionals and connect with their own peers who are interested in similar careers.

Previous sessions have been recorded and can be accessed on the Cleveland Fed's YouTube channel. Contact Elle Benak-Dammarell at elle.benak@clev.frb.org with any questions.

In this lesson, students will be able to complete a Venn diagram to learn about various occupations and identify skills and interests that align with their career preference. In addition, students will complete a worksheet that includes follow-up questions to assess their career path based on the Venn diagram.

In this activity, students will match occupations with their responsibilities to learn about jobs within their community.