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Youth Opportunity: removing barriers to employment

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In 2018, McDonald’s set a global goal to reduce barriers to employment for two-million young people by 2025, through pre-employment job readiness training, employment opportunities and workplace development programs. In addition to providing job opportunities that young people need to kick start their career, the company and participating Franchisees are expanding existing training and education programs to go beyond those they hire. In partnership with local community organizations and the International Youth Foundation (IYF), McDonald’s is rolling out a new pre-employment job readiness training program designed to help young people develop the competencies employers are looking for in entry-level employees.

Entity

McDonald's Corporation Private sector

Technical assistance, expertise and implementation; Financial and/or in-kind contribution

Partners

  • International Youth Foundation (IYF)

    Youth organization, civil society, non-governmental, non-profit organization

    Technical assistance, expertise and implementation

Sustainable Development Goals & targets

  • 4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship
  • 8.6 By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training

Themes

Achievement At Glance

In 2018, McDonald’s announced the Youth Opportunity initiative, which aims to reduce barriers to employment for two million young people by 2025. From 2018 to 2022, we estimate 1.7M opportunity youth have participated in training programs and/or have been hired in McDonald’s or participating Franchisee restaurants in participating markets.  

In Chicago and Washington DC, young people participated in life skills training designed by IYF. To date, over 15,900 young people have received training through the program across Chicago and DC. Of those that completed the program to date, 51% were either employed or in education, and 77% reported an increase in life skills. McDonald’s supported IYF’s development of a digital life skills curriculum to complement the in-person training. In 2020, McDonald’s and IYF extended this digital curriculum to external organizations in the US and, in partnership with Arcos Dorados (McDonald’s largest franchisee in Latin America and the Caribbean), across Latin America. To date, over 41,200 young people have accessed the curriculum. 

Key Highlight On Guiding Principle

Recognition of the heterogeneity-There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to supporting young people, which is why we offer a variety of employment opportunities and training and education programs for those who join us, from life skills training, to technical skills courses, to apprenticeships, and on the job learning. For those who face barriers to employment, we developed a pre-employment training program in partnership with IYF to help them develop the competencies they need to get a first job. 

Expanding investments in youth for quality education- McDonald’s has a longstanding commitment to providing training, education and career pathways for young people around the world. Through the YO initiative, McDonald’s committed to significantly expand this impact globally by developing new job readiness training, enhancing existing training programs, and significantly expanding apprenticeship opportunities, among other investments. 

Achieving impact at the country level-McDonald’s recognizes that the barriers to employment which young people face vary from country to country. To target our support where it is needed most, we use locally established definitions of barriers to employment. McDonald’s works with partners who are embedded in the community to help ensure a targeted and impactful approach.   

description

McDonald’s aims to reduce barriers to employment for two-million young people by 2025. As part of this goal, McDonald’s is piloting a pre-employment job-readiness training program in Chicago, with the goal of reducing barriers to employment for 4,000 young people in the city, before rolling it out to select cities in the U.S. from 2019. This initiative will be rolled out from 2019 to participating global markets through locally-relevant training programs and partners.

McDonald’s is bringing together four trusted community organizations – After School Matters, Skills for Chicagoland’s Future, Phalanx Family Services and Central States SER – that will pair relevant skills training programs with a customized version of IYF’s Passport to Success curriculum. The training is designed to help young people develop the competencies employers are looking for in entry-level employees.

Participants will learn valuable soft skills such as self-awareness and management, communication skills, problem solving and conflict management. In addition to being considered for job opportunities at company-owned and franchisee restaurants, graduates from the training will have the chance to pursue opportunities with potential employers across a variety of industries like healthcare, supply chain logistics and IT.

The company and participating franchisees will also provide job opportunities that young people need to kick-start their career. Employees can go on to access training, education and leadership development programs, including Archways to Opportunity, an education program that provides eligible employees an opportunity to complete an apprenticeship, receive college tuition assistance and learn English as a second language.

https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/scale-for-good/using-our-scale-for-good.html
https://twitter.com/McDonaldsCorp
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mcdonald%27s-corporation
https://iyfglobal.org/initiatives/youth-opportunity
https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-purpose-and-impact/community-connection/community-impact.html
https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/youth-opportunity.html
https://iyfglobal.org/blog/meet-fall-yo-ambassadors-and-yo-global-youth-council
https://iyfglobal.org/blog/meet-fall-2022-cohort-youth-opportunity-ambassadors
https://iyfglobal.org/blog/reflecting-fall-2022-youth-opportunity-ambassador-cohort
https://iyfglobal.org/blog/honoring-international-youth-day-yo-ambassadors-amplify-issues-they-care-about-most

Deliverables and links to SDG targets

  • Progress: 800,000 out of 2000000 young people trained in relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, ICT skills and soft skills

    8.6 By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training

    A pre-employment job-readiness training program to help young people develop the competencies employers are looking for in entry-level employees, and job opportunities at McDonald’s and participating Franchisee restaurants where young people can develop soft skills, like teamwork and communication, and access hospitality experience and training and education programs.

    BY: Dec 2025
Global

Start

22-Aug-2018

End

31-Dec-2025

2,000,000

young people to benefit directly from this commitment

Target: Only young people 15-19, 20-24

Primarily:
  • Young people in urban areas
  • Young women
  • Young men
  • Low-income individuals
  • Young people with low levels of education and/or drop-outs

Challenges faced in implementation

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted in-person training for local partners. McDonald’s supported IYF’s development of a digital, game-based life skills curriculum in English and Spanish to complement the Youth Opportunity in-person life skills training. McDonald’s and IYF extended this digital curriculum to external organizations around the globe, including some secondary school systems in parts of Latin America. To date, over 41,200 young people have accessed the curriculum. 

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