Genesys Works Pays Gen Z Interns Up to $14,000 to Learn Office Etiquette

High school seniors in Genesys Works' program can earn up to $14,000 during their senior-year internship—a paid gig in a market where unpaid internships have become the status quo for young workers. The national nonprofit has spent more than two decades teaching underserved high schoolers the workplace basics that employers say Gen Z lacks, from email etiquette to prompt engineering.

Since 2002, Genesys Works has served more than 14,000 students nationwide. In 2025 alone, it helped 2,161 teenagers launch their professional careers. The organization works with 205 corporate partners across 27 industries—including Accenture, JPMorgan, and Mayo Clinic—spanning healthcare, technology, finance, and construction.

Before students step into roles at partner companies, they complete an eight-week summer training program across Genesys' nine regional markets. The curriculum covers resume preparation, LinkedIn profiles, and mock interviews. Students learn to keep their phones away during meetings, ditch abbreviations in their emails, and stay on top of meeting documents. Training also includes Excel, digital literacy, and what CEO Byron V. Garrett calls "core professional skills"—critical thinking, logic, and reasoning—which have "become so important right now."

"I don't believe [it] when employers say that they can't find the talent," Garrett tells Fortune. "The challenge is they do want someone who's ready to go to work."

Garrett points to a structural disadvantage many participants face. "Oftentimes our young professionals don't come from backgrounds where folks call [their] mom or aunt and say, 'Hey, I ran into this problem at work. What do I do?'…Because they don't know anyone who actually has done that before," he says.

Training goes beyond etiquette

Genesys has moved aggressively into AI training, filling a gap Garrett says schools have left open. Students arrive already familiar with chatbots, but the program teaches fact-checking AI output, understanding the technology's limitations, and protecting proprietary information.

"We also give you the other technical skills," Garrett says. "Let's make you proficient in the office suite…How do we now help you understand how to use AI? Not just from a personal perspective, but how do you improve business efficiency utilizing prompt engineering? You can [use] Chat[GPT], but here's a way to do that in the context of business."

Employers, Garrett argues, are often hiring for readiness rather than job-specific knowledge. "[Employers] may not be looking for practical skill sets related to the actual position," he explains. "We're giving you those office professional skills so that you know what it means to go to work, to be on time, to report into a structure."

The payoff shows up in paychecks

The program's outcomes extend well beyond the first paycheck. Alumni who are seven or more years out of the program earn an average salary of $67,000 per year. The typical starting salary for similarly-aged recent college graduates is $56,153, according to 2026 data from Clever. Genesys estimates that 73% of surveyed alumni earn more than at least one of their parents, and 20% own a home.

Garrett says paying interns gives them a "different sense of dignity," especially as money stays tight for many American households.

Healthcare and construction lead demand

Gen Zers have struggled to land entry-level roles as employers pull back hiring, and Garrett acknowledges some Genesys partner companies have tightened their belts. Still, demand persists in specific sectors. Healthcare employers have ramped up hiring of Genesys-trained teenagers—Mayo Clinic's campus in Jacksonville, Florida has doubled its intern cohort this new cycle.

Construction is another bright spot. The interns are not doing hard-hat work on site; they take on back office, procurement, and quality assurance roles. Garrett also sees an opening in AI data centers springing up across the country, where he says shortages of data engineers and HVAC technicians create opportunity.

Tech remains the program's strongest pipeline. "Where we've had the most success historically [is with] folks who really want a career in technology," Garrett says. "They really see us as a viable opportunity for that, because there have been so many young professionals that have gone on to work at the IT help desk."

As employers keep citing a skills gap among the youngest cohort of workers, programs like Genesys Works are positioning paid, structured training as the bridge—and the salary data suggests the model is working.