A refurbished café opens later this month in Korea where Starbucks will work with a local nonprofit to provide barista and customer service training to young people in the neighborhood. In Hong Kong, what begins as a student workshop on resume writing and job interviewing techniques could end with an internship with Starbucks. Young adults in London learn teamwork and decision-making skills from Starbucks partners (employees). And in Mexico City, future entrepreneurs are taught bakery and food preparation skills.

Starbucks partners around the world help with these kinds of mentoring activities throughout the year, and in April there's a special emphasis placed on volunteering during Starbucks Global Month of Service.

Every April Starbucks invites partners and customers to join together in community service work. This year a majority of the volunteer efforts support Opportunity Youth - young people ages 16-24 who are not employed or in school. Starbucks plans to hire 10,000 Opportunity Youth by the year 2018.

Thousands of partners have been actively involved with projects in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver, Houston and cities throughout the country. An estimated 40,000 Starbucks partners, with half of them outside the U.S. will take part in community service work. Here are a few of the global projects partners are supporting.

Korea

With the launch of the Junior Achievement program, Starbucks Korea partners will share their experiences with high school students in the greater Seoul area. As the kick-off session, chief marketing officer of Starbucks Coffee Korea, SJ Paik, shared her personal and professional experience with 850 high school students on April 10. Starbucks Korea partners also got together for special seminars where baristas shared their coffee knowledge with young customers interested in the barista profession. The seminar took place in over 100 stores nationwide on the same day, April 14, where close 600 customers participated.

Hong Kong

Working with Junior Achievement, Starbucks Hong Kong Partners will share personal and professional experiences with young people in different districts of Hong Kong. They'll also offer secondary school students an interactive platform to develop communication skills, teamwork, resume writing and interview skills.

Canada

Among the projects in Canada, Starbucks will help youth in cities like Vancouver focus on life and job skills such as interviewing, resume writing, and developing a personal brand.

UK

Partners in London are working with a nonprofit called The Challenge to create more opportunities for young people. As part of their ongoing volunteer support, baristas and store managers help with practice interviews, resume reviews and tips for landing a first job. "Open Starbucks" is the name of the program because it symbolizes "Starbucks opening our doors and providing a behind-the-scenes look at our business to help young people learn," said Nicky Gaskell, senior manager with Starbucks UK.

Starbucks Mexico together with FUNDACION ALSEA will provide a series of workshops on bakery and food preparation with specific skills to enable young participants to start their own home-business model. More than 6,000 partners are expected to take part in nearly Global Month of Service projects throughout Mexico.

For more information on this news release, contact the Starbucks Newsroom .

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