In a remarkable initiative, the US Coffeehouse chain, Starbuck Corp, has announced a plan to hire 100,000 young people over the next three years, in a bid to both provide them with jobs and offer requisite training that would increase their employability. In its noble initiative, it has the support of JP Morgan Chase, Macy's, Target and Walmart.

Under the present initiative, Starbucks, along with its coalition of the above-mentioned founding companies, would make efforts to help thousands of young workers build skills and ultimately secure a job. This would also bring down the unbudging high unemployment rate for the country's youngest potential employees, which is some 5.6 million people between the ages of 16 to 24 who have completed school, but are not working.

Howard Schultz, the Chairman and CEO of Starbucks and his wife Sheri have already set aside as much as $30 million on behalf of their family foundation, to help young people secure their future by entering America's work force. This money, they said, would go both towards hard skills as well as soft skills, hard skills for fields like technology and retail and soft ones for abilities like teamwork and time management.

The hitch that the initiative faces is that young people are still unaware of the opportunities before them and usually are clueless about how to secure a job. From the employer's side, the problem is the risk of faulty recruiting, training and therefore, retention of work force.

This is Starbucks' second social initiative within a year. It earlier launched the 'Race Together' initiative that drew a lot of flak from various quarters, owing to the sensitive 'race' issue that it had stirred.