Fact 1
More than one in three Americans (about 33%) were working in the Gig Economy in the year 2020.*
That’s a lot of people!
In fact, that was 57 million people! Many additional workers began working at home as a result of the pandemic.
Two years later, as of mid-year 2022, about 71% of workers were working all the time, or part of the time, from home, as members of the Gig Economy.
Even before the pandemic:
- The number of full-time permanent jobs was dropping and is still rapidly decreasing.
- The freelance (occasional work) economy was growing three times faster than the traditional full-time workforce.
- This once ‘fringe employment’ model is now mainstream.
- Businesses are planning to substantially increase the use of ‘gig’ workers.
- The number of remote professional workers will increase in 2023, and will continue to grow as employers adjust to worker preferences.
The programs that make up our Internship Depot offerings provide opportunities for participating middle and high school students to learn about, prepare for, and subsequently enter the workforce in a traditional job or in the Gig Economy, where they can earn money before and after they graduate from high school (whenever they turn 18 years of age). And they can do the job right from their bedrooms or dorm rooms.
Our activities fit in the small spaces of time available to today’s busy students, and include after-school teleconferences and webinars, challenging but fun team competitions, interactions with business mentors, and engaging events during which participants learn AND PRACTICE the skills they will need to generate income that will help them pay for college or industry trade school, transportation, and other necessities.
RIPP offers a variety of classroom lessons, podcasts, résumé review, online activities, business Mentor interactions, and curated TED© talks that will help students understand the world of work and what will be expected of them.
With our extensive training and mentoring, students can even ‘enter’ the Gig economy in or immediately after senior year in high school, where they can generate income that will help them pay for college, trade school, transportation, and other necessities. RNMKR