Teach to Work

Building on fifteen years of mentoring high school students in the inner city, Patty Alper proposes a model for closing America's skills gap: pair a mentor, a mentee and a real-world project. Mentors bring expertise, while mentees are teens and young adults short on motivation, experience and role models. The book is a call to action for professionals still on the sidelines, from bankers, lawyers and architects to accountants, engineers, IT specialists and artists, and it gives them a step-by-step guide to passing on what they know. Alper draws on real stories and letters from students, teachers and mentors. Alper argues that corporations, professionals and boomers can make a real difference to the working future of young Americans.