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In an effort to encourage American high school students to stay in school and increase their competitiveness with counterparts from other countries, AT&T and Junior Achievement today announced the launch of a multimillion-dollar, multiyear job shadow initiative that will match 100,000 students with more than 50,000 AT&T employees to help strengthen student success and workforce readiness.

The five-year, $5.5 million initiative formally kicks off today in Dallas, where students from Adamson High School will join forces with AT&T executives, including AT&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson. With 1.2 million American students dropping out of high school every year, initiatives such as the AT&T/JA Worldwide Job Shadow teach students about careers and help them see firsthand the educational background and skills they will need to succeed on the job.

“One of the best ways we can help our young people succeed in high school is to ensure that they see the connection between what they learn in school and what’s required in the workplace,” said Stephenson. “Here in Dallas and across our company, the people of AT&T are proud to join forces with Junior Achievement to help students make that connection and go on to build great careers.”

The AT&T/JA Worldwide Job Shadow is committing 400,000 employee volunteer hours to reach 100,000 students in grades 9-12. The program will bring students into the world of business through classroom instruction followed by on-site mentoring in which students get to interact with a wide range of AT&T employees including technical and customer service representatives, product and service managers, and marketing and advertising executives.

In this comprehensive effort, local Junior Achievement offices will work closely with local AT&T operations to set up job shadow opportunities between students and AT&T employees at AT&T facilities.

“No matter what career they ultimately choose, the JA Job Shadow experience helps kids become ‘work ready’ by taking them into the workplace and showing them how education and training translate to success on the job,” said Sean C. Rush, president and CEO of JA Worldwide. “Seventy-nine percent of students participating in job shadowing report that the program increased their desire to stay in school, so this is clearly a proven way to improve high school success.”

Through the job shadow opportunity, Rush added, students experience some of the interpersonal nuances of the workplace that are difficult to grasp in a classroom setting, such as the importance of negotiation, teamwork, cooperation with others, decision making and problem solving. Following participation in the initiative, students will be able to identify and demonstrate the work-readiness skills needed to research, get and keep a job — as well as develop personal strategies to achieve lifelong learning pursuits and career opportunities.

The job shadow initiative is part of the recently announced AT&T Aspire program, one of the largest-ever corporate commitments to high school retention and workforce readiness. The initiative is designed to support proven approaches to promoting educational success, from the classroom to the workplace.

Through the Aspire initiative, AT&T has committed $100 million (over four years, 2008-2011) to a range of efforts that includes:

Two of the major unions representing AT&T’s employees, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, are supporting the job shadow initiative.

Junior Achievement is a recognized leader in job shadowing and a key member of the National Job Shadow Coalition, which also includes AT&T, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Labor and America’s Promise Alliance. The AT&T program is the largest-ever corporate job shadow collaboration Junior Achievement has undertaken.

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