A new help-oriented job site is targeting college-age students.
The College Caregivers program, which aims to help college-age students find jobs in their field of study that assist the community, launched Aug. 26 in Philadelphia.
Considering students’ busy schedules, the program, accessible through Care.com, is meant to be flexible and is designed to help provide students job experience while allowing them to keep up with their school work. “The College Caregivers program was developed specifically for our college-age audience and families to find each other more easily through the site,” Sabrina Mole, manager of Care.com, said.
In an effort to fit the needs of many types of students, College Caregivers offers a variety of jobs, from babysitting to student-tutoring.
A team at Care.com works to ensure the safety of all Care.com users. A number of people, whose duties include running criminal background checks and checking state sex-offender registries before putting families and employees profiles on the site, are part of this team.
During the enrollment process, students can select the type of job or service they are looking to provide, and after the application goes through, they will receive messages from families in need of that particular service. Students may also apply to jobs of interest in their area.
Some Main Campus students, such as Tien Le, a senior international business major, said the program sounds like a great idea.
“A lot of my friends do volunteer work and sometimes have trouble going out and finding work with people they feel comfortable with. This site would be perfect for them,” Le said.
“My roommate was actually looking for a dog-sitter the other night,” Ngan Hoang, a junior biology major, added. “She’s going to be so excited to hear about the site.”
The program is currently active at universities in all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
“At Care.com, we’ve received a great deal of anecdotal feedback from college students who have found that, in addition to providing a flexible schedule to earn money to defer college costs, babysitting in college enables students to gain experience in managing a family, responsibility, as well as key skills such as learning and time management,” Mole said.
“I have never heard of the website,” said Danielle Mandico, a senior geography and urban studies major. “But I think it is going to be a really successful program around campus. Many families in this area especially are in desperate need of caregivers to help them with their daily lives.”
Jeanette Vega can be reached at jeanette.vega@temple.edu.
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