In 2018, McDonald's Corporation announced a new initiative called Youth Opportunity, with 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 partnership with local community organizations and the International Youth Foundation (IYF), McDonald's offers a pre-employment work-readiness and soft skills training program called Passport to Success. The Passport to Success Explorer digital curriculum provides young people the opportunity to learn valuable life skills, such as self-awareness and management, communication skills, healthy relationship building, and conflict management virtually. The digital curriculum is now accessible online to up to 100,000 young people through various local, national and global youth serving organizations, higher education institutes and other city systems.

Victoria H. is one of the first people to benefit from Passport to Success Explorer. This is her story.

My name is Victoria. I grew up in Tulua, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, but I moved to Washington, D.C. with my husband and 6-year-old daughter last summer.

All my life, I've admired my dad because he's a determined and tireless man. Even though he's retired, he continues to study and learn all he can about agriculture. He's always said education is the best legacy for his children - and I agree.

When I learned about Passport to Success Explorer earlier this year through the International Youth Foundation, it seemed like a great opportunity for me. I liked that the classes were offered online, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. So far, I've taken classes about confidence and assertiveness, cooperation and teamwork, time management, goal setting, professional communication skills, managing conflict and problem solving, budget management, gender equality, respecting diversity, values and ethics, and more.

This enabled me to learn the professional skills every one of us needs to succeed in our jobs and advance in our careers.

Victoria, her husband and her daughter.

Through these classes, I've learned to deal with difficult situations that may arise at work. I've also gotten better at time management during quarantine. It's been a challenge organizing my own schedule, let alone my daughter's distance learning schedule.

I already have my Bachelor's degree in Biology; my next step is to start a Biotechnology certificate program at a local community college. After this, I'll be ready to get job experience or pursue higher education. Each step takes me closer toward my dream job: a science professor at a university.

I highly recommend Passport to Success Explorer to others. It's a very useful tool, and it enabled me to learn the professional skills every one of us needs to succeed in our jobs and advance in our careers.

To learn more about Youth Opportunity, please visit https://www.iyfnet.org/initiatives/youth-opportunity. If you are interested in offering the Youth Opportunity PTS Explorer curriculum to young people you serve, please reach out to PTSExplorer@iyfnet.org.

(C) 2020 Electronic News Publishing, source ENP Newswire