Minneapolis’ Step Up internship program, a long-running lifeline for local teens looking for paid summer work, is heading into the season with fewer matched employer slots just as the job market tightens for young workers. Program leaders say they still expect to place hundreds of students, but they are ramping up employer outreach and reworking training so each placement is more resilient to changing workplace expectations.
According to the Minnesota Youth Program, the City of Minneapolis’ Step Up placements included 1,385 young people working with 85 employers in state fiscal year 2025. Achieve Twin Cities notes the program, founded in 2003, has generated more than 34,000 internship opportunities for Minneapolis youth over two decades.
The broader economy is not exactly rolling out the red carpet for teen workers. Axios reported that Minnesota’s 12‑month rolling average teen unemployment climbed to roughly 13.7% in May, tightening the pool of available seasonal jobs. Local reporting has found employers citing staffing strains, cost worries and the time supervisors must spend managing interns as reasons some companies have hesitated to host young workers this year, a gap city organizers say they are scrambling to close, according to the Star Tribune.
How Step Up Is Pivoting
This summer the program has been retooled into two tracks: Step Up Foundations for newer workers and Step Up Pro for youth ready for career-specific placements, an effort meant to better match employer needs and intern readiness. Achieve Twin Cities says it will lead the Step Up Pro placements, while Project for Pride in Living manages Foundations. The city’s Step Up page lays out the summer internship window and notes that 2026 applications are closed, and program staff say the redesign aims to produce stronger matches and clearer pathways into careers. City of Minneapolis
Alumni Outcomes Show What Is On The Line
Personal stories underscore why organizers keep pushing to fill slots. According to MinnPost, former intern Mike Archer moved from a parks job paying $7.24 an hour to apprenticeship work as a journeyman electrician making roughly $63 per hour, a jump that he says will push him past six figures this year. The Minnesota Youth Program SFY2025 report also found strong program feedback, with interns rating their experience 4.3 out of 5 and 92% saying they made a valuable contribution at their worksites.
What Organizers Need From Employers
Step Up coordinators say employers can help by offering clearly scoped, supervised projects or hybrid-friendly roles that do not overload managers. Organizers are reaching back out to past hosts and to the Minneapolis Regional Chamber to widen the pool, and businesses interested in staffing interns or learning more about next season’s timeline can find resources on the program’s site. City of Minneapolis
For now, Step Up remains a reliable bridge for many Minneapolis teens, and city leaders say that shoring up employer partnerships this year will determine how many young people get the career-opening experiences the program has delivered for more than two decades.
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