SYEP Internship Program: Applications for the upcoming summer program have closed.
Internship placement updates will be released in early May 2025!
What is the Seattle Youth Employment Program?
The Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) features two programs to help you develop skills for life and work that will help achieve your current and future goals:
- Learn & Earn Program (Foundations / Pathways): Participants identify professional interests, gain marketable skills, are exposed to various career fields, and build their social network. Students receive stipends based on their quarterly participation during the school year.
- Internship Program: Participants are placed in professional and/or structured paid work settings within City departments, local businesses and non-profit agencies to apply their knowledge, gain hands-on experience, develop professional connections, and build their resume.
Learn More:
What is the Internship Program?
- Land a 6-8 week paid internship that matches your skills, career interests, and availability
- Receive pre-employment training and work experience to aid in your professional growth and career exploration
- Get professional support from a trusted mentor throughout the program
- Gain practical experience to build your resume and potential connections to advance your career or education
Internship period is July 9 – August 26, 2025
- Youth can create an account here to fill out the online application. (Download a help guide.)
- When you submit your application, it will be reviewed and processed. If your application meets the eligibility requirements, SYEP will contact you about the next steps in the process.
- 250 youth and young adults, ages 16 to 24, will be selected by lottery to participate.
- Those selected will participate in in-person, virtual, or hybrid (depending on the needs of the employer) career readiness learning activities before the internship start date.
- Participants who complete all eligibility screenings will be invited to participate in our internship placement process. Those who make it through this process will be placed at internships for between six and eight weeks with City departments, Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), or Private Sector employers.
- Interns will be paid $20.76 per hour, unless otherwise communicated by the assigned employer.
Click Here to View Program Flyer | Program Chart
What is Learn and Earn: Career Pathways?
SYEP offers Career Pathways for those who have a career sector already in mind. Career Pathways is an intensive, intermediate-advanced level training program where participants receive technical training in their chosen career track and are provided support from dedicated staff members to prepare them for entry-level professional internship/job experience(s).
Participants within this program also receive job readiness skills training and workshops from subject matter experts (SMEs), and are provided opportunities to job shadow and interview professionals within their chosen career field. Participants can participate in the program and earn a monthly stipend to help support them while studying.
Program Duration:
3 – 6 months
Pathways Program Requirements and Eligibility:
- Meet all SYEP standard application eligibility requirements
- Have previously participated in SYEP Foundations, SYEP Learn and Earn (school year or summer) Programming
OR - Pass the Assessment of Skills
- Interest and availability of sector track
- Eager to learn and engage with program material and staff
Click Here to View Program Flyer | Program Chart
What is Learn and Earn: Career Foundations?
SYEP offers Career Foundations for those who are new to the workforce world and for those in need of key industry soft skills development to become competitive candidates for any position they apply for.
Participants within this program receive job readiness skills training and career planning workshops from dedicated, trained staff while receiving 1:1 intensive support to help with personal and professional development. Participants can participate in the program and earn a monthly stipend to help support them while studying.
Program Information:
Stipends of $325 are paid at the end of each module. In order to qualify for the stipend, the participant will need to meet all stipend requirements, which include attending a certain number of classes within the module and completing all required assessments and assignments.
Stipends are paid via check through our Finance Department. The availability of the check will be communicated by program staff prior to check disbursements.
Program Duration:
6 months, 2-hour weekly sessions
Cohort-based classes are led weekly by an assigned Youth Development Counselor and run approximately two hours per week. At the start of the program, applicants will select the day that works best for them.
Class Information:
Examples of class topics that will be offered include:
- Team Building and Collaboration
- Effective Communication
- Elevator Pitch & Professional Email Etiquette
- Resumes & Cover Letters
- Networking & LinkedIn
- Financial Literacy: Money Mindset
We also offer opportunities for participants to receive real-time training from industry professionals in the form of workshops and field trips during the duration of the program.
Foundations Program Requirements and Eligibility:
- Meet all SYEP standard application eligibility requirements
- Have not previously participated in SYEP Foundations, SYEP Learn and Earn (school year or summer) Programming
- Eager to learn and engage with program material and staff
View Employer Flyer | View Employer FAQ
What Are We Looking For?
Opportunities to support youth and young adults in their career journey by providing in-demand internship opportunities. Per our participant data, youth are looking for employment opportunities and experiences in some of the following career fields:
- Health Care
- Technology Industry
- Business Administration
- S.T.E.M.
- Real Estate
- Creative Arts
Ways to Get Involved
Host an Intern
-
- Submit An Interest Form via the Interest Form link. This will alert the SYEP Employer Engagement team of your interest and will initiate the application process.
- Register a user account in our Employer Portal. Once we receive your interest form, one of our staffers will send you a personal invitation to our Employer Portal, where you can create an account allowing you to apply to host interns.
- Submit a completed application through the Employer Portal and upload any required documentation supporting your completed application.
After Submitting an Application
The Employer Engagement team will review applications for completion. If we require any additional information, we will reach out before our application deadline. Once the deadline has passed, we will begin our matching process in early May with the prospective interns.
By mid-May, we will reach out to all prospective employer sites regarding their application status. Those who receive an intern will be able to then check in the Employer Portal (using your User Account login) and indicate how many youth have been placed and their contact information. If you have been selected to host an intern, you will follow the steps below for Internship Readiness.
Internship Readiness Steps:
- Complete, sign, and submit the Agency Agreement Contract, Supervisor Agreement, and Background Check all via our Adobe Sign webforms provided to you in the Next Steps e-mail.
- Participate in a site visit where one of our dedicated staff members will review your completed, signed paperwork, go over logistics, and preview the space interns will be occupying.
- Plan and share the work plan you envision for the intern(s). You can submit your workplan or first week plenary with your assigned SYEP staff member.
- Attend all required site supervisor trainings hosted by the SYEP program team.
Please note, as much as we would like to host every interested employer, we cannot guarantee placement of interns at every site due to intern onboarding completion, intern removal or dropping from program, and/or a limited number of interns or interest in a particular internship.
Facilitate as a Subject Matter Expert
If you have an area of expertise that you would like to share with our program participants, we offer a Learn and Earn program during the fall to springtime during which we facilitate weekly workshops on career and job skill development. Some examples of workshops facilitated in previous cohort years and are of interest to our participants are:
- Entrepreneurship
- Financial Literacy
- Imposter Syndrome
- “A Day in the Life” (in a specific role)
- Healthy Relationships
- Code Switching
- Interviewing
If there are any other ways you would like to support SYEP youth (e.g., mentorship, job shadowing), please reach out to our engagement team via e-mail: syepemprelations@seattle.gov.
Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible, you must:
- be between the ages of 16 and 24 years old at the start of the program.
- live within the Seattle city limits (click the link to verify) or attend Seattle public schools or Seattle Colleges.
- live in a household with income at or below 80% Area Median Income (AMI). See AMI table below.
| # In Household | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Maximum Gross Yearly Income | $84,850 | $96,950 | $109,050 | $121,150 | $130,850 | $140,550 | $150,250 | $159,950 |
Please read all program requirements before applying. You will not be considered for the program if you do not meet all requirements, so please ensure that your application is accurate.
We have a list of acceptable documentation:
English | አማርኛ | Español | Oromiffa | af Soomaali | Tagalog | Tiếng Việt | 简体中文
All documents have been updated for July 2023. If you have any additional questions, please contact us at SYEP@seattle.gov.
Frequently Asked Questions
You must be 16 years old before the start date of the program you are applying to. So, you may be 15 years old at the time you submit your application.
Internships change every year. Internship development is an ongoing process and jobs are added frequently. We offer positions in office administration, information technology (IT), childcare, medical, restaurant, retail, construction, camp counseling, community art projects, and more!
We are always looking to create new relationships with companies and community organizations. Refer employers you know to our program.
- Someone on the SYEP team should follow up with you within three weeks of your application submission regarding whether your application is complete (meaning you have submitted all required eligibility documents and they have been verified). To view next steps after you submit your application, view the Youth Applicant Pre-Program Checklist.
- Additionally, our application is usually open for at least a month and since gathering eligibility documents and uploading it to our Youth Portal can be difficult for some, our SYEP staff provide support to applicants for at least a week after the application closes. This is why you may not hear from us for a while after the application closes but we will send you an email update when the next admissions phase begins!
- For the Internship Program, once applications have closed and employer host recruitment is complete, the SYEP team will reach out to you with the next steps. View this document on How to Select Your Internship Preferences to review the internship opportunities and rank your choices for consideration!