How to Hire an Azgari Foundation Graduate

The short answer: tell us the role, meet the graduates who fit, hire the one you would hire anyway. No placement fee, no contract, and a mentor stays attached to your new hire after the start date.

Status, September 2026: our first cohort is in training. The first graduates are expected in late 2026. Employers can register interest now.

Why this candidate pool is worth a look

Every graduate you meet through Azgari Foundation will have spent 16 to 24 weeks, depending on the track, training in a specific field before a paycheck was on the table. That is 15 to 20 hours a week on top of whatever job, school, or caregiving they were already carrying. No job posting screens for that. It filters for the trait entry-level hiring managers say is hardest to interview for, which is whether someone will show up, keep learning, and stay once the novelty wears off.

The applicant pool for entry-level roles is also, by employers' own account, thin on job-ready candidates right now. In NFIB's July 2026 small-business survey, 36% of owners reported job openings they could not fill, and among owners trying to hire, 85% said they found few or no qualified applicants for the role. The gap owners describe is job-specific skill, and an Azgari Foundation graduate has already closed that gap for the track they trained in.

What graduates bring by track

Training is hands-on and project-based. What a graduate can do on day one varies by track but is concrete in every case.

• Marketing Specialist. Can build and schedule a content calendar, run and report on a small paid-ads campaign in Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager, write and edit copy with AI drafting tools, and read Google Analytics well enough to explain results. Fits marketing coordinator, social media coordinator, content assistant, or paid-ads assistant roles.
• Bookkeeping & Accounting Clerk. Can record transactions, send invoices, process accounts payable and receivable, reconcile bank accounts, and produce basic financial reports in standard bookkeeping software. Fits bookkeeping clerk, AP/AR clerk, or accounting assistant roles.
• IT Help Desk. Can triage and resolve common hardware and software tickets, manage user accounts and access in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and document issues in a ticketing system. Fits help desk technician, desktop support, or junior IT generalist roles.
• Web Developer. Can plan, build, and launch a small-business website with AI-assisted web tools, optimize it for mobile and search, set up forms and integrations, and maintain it after handoff. Fits junior web developer, website maintainer, or web coordinator roles.
• Administrative Assistant. Can manage calendars and inboxes, coordinate scheduling and travel, maintain records, and support office operations. Fits administrative assistant, office coordinator, or operations support roles.

Depending on the track, a graduate arrives with a portfolio of work product, a certification pathway in progress, or documented project experience. There is something concrete to walk through in an interview beyond a class list.

What "job-ready" means in practice

A common employer worry about any workforce-training pipeline is that "trained" means "trained in theory." Azgari Foundation's model is built the other way. Volunteer educators who work in the field teach with the tools and deliverables the field uses. A graduate finishing the bookkeeping track has processed transactions in the same category of software your bookkeeper already uses. A graduate finishing the web development track has shipped something that runs in a browser. That does not replace your own vetting. You should still interview, check references, and make your own judgment. It does mean the floor is higher than an unscreened entry-level applicant with no work history.

It is also worth being direct about what this is not. Graduates are not certified on a specific employer's systems, and 16 to 24 weeks of training is not years of on-the-job experience. What you are getting is a candidate who finished a structured program, has hands-on exposure to the core tools of the field, and has a support system in place that most first-time hires do not. Expect to do the same onboarding you would do for any new hire. Expect it to go faster because the fundamentals are there.

How the process works

1. Send one email to clientsuccessteam@azgari.org, or use the contact page. Include the job title, the wage range, the schedule (full-time, part-time, remote, on-site, or hybrid), the city, and two or three sentences on what the person will do most days. A link to the posting is enough if you already have one.
2. We reply within two business days with candid answers about which current or upcoming graduates fit, what track they trained in, and what they can already do. If we have no one who fits, we say so.
3. You review portfolios or work samples before any interview. For a marketing graduate that is a campaign report and content samples. For a web developer it is a live site and its code. For a bookkeeping graduate it is a reconciled set of training books. For help desk it is documented tickets. For administrative support it is a sample workflow or process document.
4. You interview exactly as you would any other candidate. Same process, same standards, same right to say no.
5. You hire directly. There is no staffing intermediary and no employer-of-record arrangement. The graduate becomes your employee, on your terms, from day one. If it is not a fit, tell us why. That feedback sharpens the next introduction.

What to ask in the interview

Hiring managers sometimes ask us how to interview a candidate whose experience is a training program rather than a prior job. Ask about the work product. "Walk me through this campaign report. What would you change if you ran it again?" "Show me a bug you fixed on this site and how you found it." "Here is a bank statement and a ledger with three discrepancies. Find them." "A user says their laptop is slow. What do you ask first?" Graduates will have rehearsed these conversations with mentors, and the answers tell you more than a hypothetical would. Ask the same behavioral questions you would ask anyone about reliability, feedback, and handling a bad day.

What continues after the hire

The graduate keeps their Azgari Foundation mentor after they start, and you keep a direct line to our team. The early months of any entry-level hire are where things quietly go sideways. A scheduling conflict nobody flags. A skill gap nobody names. A personal crisis that shows up as a no-call-no-show. Because a mentor relationship is already in place, those wobbles have somewhere to land before they become a 90-day resignation. We are not your HR department and do not manage performance issues on your behalf, but we are a resource neither you nor the new hire has to build from scratch.

A few onboarding habits help. Give the new hire a written 30-day plan with the tasks they own and the person they ask when stuck. Schedule a short check-in at the end of week one and week four. Tell them how you prefer to hear bad news. If the new hire agrees, tell the mentor the same things so both sides are working from the same expectations.

What it costs

Nothing. Azgari Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN 41-2896092). Donor and grant funding covers the training, and a successful placement is the outcome the Foundation exists to produce, not a revenue event. Compare that to a staffing agency placement fee, which commonly runs in the thousands of dollars per hire. SHRM's 2025 Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report puts average non-executive cost-per-hire at $5,475 nationally, driven up by third-party sourcing and placement costs. We ask only for a paid role at a fair wage and an interview conducted in good faith.

Some employers who hire from populations that include former foster youth may qualify for federal or state hiring incentives, such as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit. Eligibility depends on the individual hire and on paperwork filed on a deadline, so ask your tax adviser before assuming anything. We do not administer those programs and do not promise that any hire qualifies.

Frequently asked questions

Is this an internship or a job?
A paid job. Training happens before the hire, on our side, at no cost and no obligation to you. You are hiring a program graduate for open, paid employment, not taking on a trainee or an unpaid intern.

What does it cost us?
Nothing. There is no placement fee, referral fee, or ongoing charge. You pay the wage you would pay any employee in the role.

Do we have to commit to anything before meeting a candidate?
No. There is no exclusivity agreement, no minimum number of hires, and no obligation to make an offer. You can meet one graduate for one role and never hear from us again, or build an ongoing pipeline.

Are candidates minors?
Azgari Foundation serves young adults ages 16–25. Any age-specific work restrictions that apply to a candidate are the same ones that apply to any other applicant of that age, and we flag anything relevant during the introduction.

Can we hire part-time or remote?
Yes. Several tracks, including marketing, bookkeeping, and web development, are commonly done remotely. Tell us the arrangement and we will match to it.

What if the hire doesn't work out?
Tell us. We want honest feedback whether a placement succeeds or fails. The mentor relationship means we may be able to help address a fixable problem before it becomes a termination.

How many candidates can you introduce for one role?
It depends on program timing. Azgari Foundation is a new organization. Our first cohort began training in 2026, so the pool of graduates available at any given moment is small and will grow as more cohorts complete training. We have not published outcome counts yet because we do not have a full graduated cohort to report on. We will tell you plainly if we do not yet have a graduate who fits your role.

Can we get involved beyond hiring?
Yes. Employers can host mock interviews, offer short paid projects during training, or have staff volunteer as guest instructors in one of the five tracks. None of that is required to hire a graduate.