Who said a first job has to mean all work and no play?

It may have looked, sounded, and felt like a rock and roll concert as bands with names like The Amplifiers and Cloudy with a Chance of Music took to the auditorium stage to play original music to their photo-snapping families.

But for this two-week summer music camp organized by Rock to the Future, a musical education nonprofit, music was merely the lure. The true purpose was to teach middle school youths what it takes to succeed in the labor force.

“It was a nice opportunity to learn something and to learn the responsibility of going to work every day,” said Jessica Johnson, mother of Brian Jackson, 12, a rising seventh grader and now budding guitar enthusiast.

“Students come from 8 until 3, which is imitating a job,” said Jaylen Jordan, the summer program’s coordinator.

Rock to the Future was one of 80 providers that offered workforce-development summer programming for more than 8,000 young people ages 12 to 24 as part of the Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN) WorkReady program. The youngsters earn between $595 and $1,500 for participating in hands-on career readiness programs and learn the skills necessary to compete in a rapidly changing economy at hundreds of city worksites.

According to Wendy-Anne Roberts-Johnson, the new president and CEO of PYN, for the youngest set, like the rockers at Roosevelt Elementary School in Germantown, the focus is on career exposure and includes presentations from professionals, service learning projects, and learning about a variety of career fields.

» READ MORE: Give Philly kids a job. It will save money in the long run.

“They are having fun and it’s more subtle about the learning,” Roberts-Johnson said, adding thatshe is concerned that too few Philadelphia youths get exposure to the vast variety of careers in the city. “We have to give them meaningful experiences.”

At Rock to the Future, Jordan designed a professional development curriculum where students could “earn” up to $1,000 for tasks completed, such as actively participating in a college fair ($20), completing a vision board that helps them think about their future in high school ($30), or participating in the summer’s final performance ($160).

“The majority of students completed all their tasks,” Jordan said.

“It’s kind of nerve wrecking,” Tra’ahna Bey-Brody, 14, admitted. She is in her second summer with Rock the Future and plans to attend an online high school in the fall. She recalled how she worried that she might not complete her vision board. And once she got paid, she worried about how much to spend and how much to save.

But after Jordan had each of the youths take the Myers-Briggs personality test to match their results to careers they may be interested in, Bey-Brody learned she had a propensity to be anxious in new situations.

“It gave her a better understanding of herself and the careers she might be attracted to,” Jordan said.

As the students age, Roberts-Johnson said, the curriculum changes from exposure to aligning their summer WorkReady assignment with their interests. “It’s not like at 17 we expect them to have their lives all mapped out, but we want them to have work experience.”

For Yashire Askins, 16 and a rising 11th grader at Mastery Charter School-Shoemaker Campus, this summer meant working with PYN’s Youth Outreach Adolescent Community Awareness Program (YOACAP), which exposes young people to the carpentry trade in collaboration with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 158.

Askins still isn’t sure of his career path and says he’s going to “look around and see what trades there are” before deciding.

For Askins’ brother Jahkai Moses, 18, a 2023 graduate of Mastery Charter School’s Pickett Campus, three years of participation in YOACAP made the difference between not having any idea what he wanted to do after high school and developing a clear plan in a field he didn’t even know existed.

“There was a point in time I was not sure what I wanted to do,” Moses recalled.

Moses recently applied to the Finishing Trades Institute of the Mid-Atlantic Region, the official training provider of District Council #21, and has had his interview.

If accepted, he would begin as an apprentice drywall finisher, which would last for four years and his salary would rise from $18 to $27 per hour. Once his apprenticeship is completed, he has the ability to earn at least $49 an hour doing a job he has come to enjoy.

“Honestly, YOACAP was really helpful. More people my age need programs like this. Honestly, I feel everything is perfect. It is a good opportunity,” Moses said.