The Family Co-op is a program where your teenager works from home on small projects created by real companies across various industries. These work assignments are created to provide your teenager with work opportunities across 30+ industries.
They don’t need any prior experience or coding skills—just a laptop and internet access. Companies provide simulated work assignments tailored for teens, and a program manager guides them along the way. This setup lets your child gain valuable work experience, learn modern tech tools, and explore fields like real estate, finance, product design, A.I., sales, energy, game development, fashion, and more, all without interfering with their school or extracurricular activities.
The Tech Work program helps your teen explore different career paths, industries, discover their interests, and build valuable skills that schools does not teach. Traditional teen jobs in fast-food, grocery stores, and retail often don’t provide meaningful experience, and even those opportunities are limited as adults fill those roles. By gaining real work experience now, your teen can make informed decisions about their future, avoid costly indecision in college, and enter adulthood with confidence and a strong portfolio that sets them apart.
Co-ops work by partnering with executives and companies across various industries to create simulated work assignments tailored for teens. These companies provide real-world projects that mirror actual tasks in their fields, but designed for a teenager’s skill level. Starter School facilitates these partnerships, making it easy for your teen to access opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable unless you had personal connections. Since most companies don’t have the resources to train unskilled teens, the co-op bridges that gap, providing structured work experience without the need for family connections or traditional internships.
The Family Co-op offers numerous benefits for your family. Your teen gains valuable work experience without leaving home, so there’s no need to arrange transportation. They can choose flexible work hours that fit around school and activities, ensuring they don’t miss out on important events. A dedicated program manager guides them, keeping them accountable and on track, so you don’t have to. Plus, they earn money for the work they complete, teaching them the value of effort and responsibility.
Most importantly, your teen gets to participate in work assignments across over 30 different industries. This broad exposure helps them discover their interests and passions early on. While working on these projects, they gain experience with 57 modern tech tools used by professionals today. This hands-on learning not only builds valuable skills but also gives them a competitive edge for future college applications and careers.
Choose flexible hours (9 a.m. to 10 p.m. CT) any day to fit school and activities.
Log into a virtual office to access assignments, communicate, and collaborate safely.
Work on real projects in 30+ industries, gaining hands-on tech experience.
These Industry Co-op were created by partnering with real companies across 30+ industries to give your teenager valuable working experience and things to brag about on their resume.
Students learn the differences between location, sq. ft, and other factors to calculate home rental income & costs.
Students learn how to combine 3 inventory spreadsheets and gain new insights and build charts using a sales history document.
Students learn the newest A.I. tools and how to use it like a working professional for troubleshooting, marketing, research, and more.
Students learn how to create a sales presentation combining 2 separate products into 1 combined presentation.
Students learn how to use Figma to re-create a mobile app called "The Money App" - a working prototype to master the basics of app design without any coding.
Learn how brands like Prada & Louis Vuitton plan their new releases. Students conduct market research, create catalogs, and reverse image search to build skill.
Students learn how to use a basic CRM and read a product spec sheet in order to respond to customer requests & other sales related activities.
Students conduct market research, build stock portfolios, analyze historical performance, and track politicians’ stock purchases to gain creative stock market experience.
Students choose a topic, research it, and create mini-courses along with educational videos. This helps them gain teaching and research experience.
Students learn how engineering, procurement, finance, and manufacturing plays a role in modern day defense equipment manufacturing.
Students learn how calculate shipping times from warehouse to customer destination across the USA and globally based on a reference document.
Students learn how to use A.I. to create a simple app and create bug tickets, new features, & announcements on JIRA.
Students learn how to use social media for Public announcements for companies and the basics of launching an ad on Facebook & Instagram.
Students get a list of electronic components and use a vendor catalog to find & select the right ones based on specific needs.
Students learn the basics of the oil & gas industry by understanding the differences in upstream, downstream, and midstream operations in the industry.
Students learn how to take wedding photos from a professional photographer and turn it into a wedding album design mockup.
Students learn how to use the basics of password management tools, encryption, and the basics of organizational document mgmt.
Students learn a list of 10 different SaaS tools and how to automate and send data back and forth using a powerful automation tool called Pabbly.
Students learn how to plan a full luxury event to simulate how to provide high-end service sales events & offerings to high-value clients.
Students learn the basics of affiliate marketing by using modern day link tracking tools, promo codes, & sales performance data.
Students get access to homes that need complete redesigns and plan out all the necessary details & costs associated with renovation.
PLUS Everything in Starter
