Year Up National Capital Region - Washington, D.C.

Sydney

Disrespectful and demeaning staff members. Spends more time trying to intimidate, triangulate, and mob students who threaten them than trying to teach them and advocate for them. I say this because they often unjustly advocate against students. In order to get seated and graduate you must submit to satiating their verbal abuse and gaslighting. Colorist staff members. The teachers aren’t qualified for these positions and spend most of their time repeating information off a screen. 90% of what you learn you teach yourself. Some students only join because they’re in college and they want job placement that is in their field of study/major. Year Up also likes to try to credit themselves for those students’ achievements. Witnessed all darker skinned students get seated in a different track for internship because YearUp lost students in a that career-track and they needed fillers. Staff members will falsely accuse students, using nuances to character assassinate them to compensate for their ineffectiveness. Unprofessional staff who targets students. They pick and choose who to give infractions to for the same thing. I was warned prior to entering this program by an ALUMNI that the Program Director had a notorious reputation for being ineffective and seating students in internships they didn't train for. Said student also told me how he was subjected to being called worthless and screamed at while in the program by a teacher. Said student was also given a lower salary than originally told by their manager. The Associate Director of Academics and Employment Placement Manager tried to humiliate and single me out for leaving a critical review in a Year Up survey that was sent out to students and said nothing else to any other student. They failed to control optics to remove me covertly. Advocated against me during my internship behind my back and tried to make it seem like they were being supportive. The internship manager was manipulative and never intended to sustain the duration of the internship. She held me until the employee who was absent returned. The last day she and the rest of the team didn't even acknowledge me and the employee who came back from paternity leave who's position I was filling gave me the nastiest look ever. No one spoke to me that whole day or gave me any deliverables. It was motivated because my duration was long enough that she could have removed me prior to this event. I'm sure it was to make it look like I wasn't doing any work. Later reading reviews on that company I am affirmed as to why. Year Up staff allowed an Islamic student to racially discriminate against me and my country without punishment because they wanted me to look like the aggressor. I've been subjected to a YearUp career-track teacher inappropriately speaking to me while turning the zoom recording off, so what she said was not documented and had staff members turn the recording on other times to select verbiage to paint false narratives against me. Off course they tried to blame me for everything the whole time. I also communicated with other students who did not receive the same mobbing and targeting I did in the same instances. There was a central place of communication elsewhere that most students in multiple tracks used to express their disdain against the staff members daily, mainly the teachers because of their behavior, many of which express the same sentiments. Had students from other tracks tell me how the same career-track teacher would constantly compare them to a different career-track to make them feel less than. Staff feel as if they can act like this because they think they can take advantage of you. Many students intern and don't get placed with the company and receive little to no employment placement afterwards. Discrimination at play heavy. Multiple YouTube Videos of bad reviews and low wages being placed by this organization. You are better off elsewhere and will receive better entry into the corporate workforce on your own. I've had multiple companies reach out to me for positions. These good reviews are fake.

Zeshan Mahmood

This program is not for those who have a job or who are students. It’s a SCAM. However, I do think that this is a good program for those who are struggling with getting a retail job or minimum wage job (at least you get paid $50 a week 1.20 an hour at Year Up). But remember you have to pay the metro fares as well. Once you finish the program after a year of stress, you will get offers for $12 an hour jobs which will be a two-month contract. I wasted my precious one year with this organization. I could have worked those 40 hours a week at some place and saved some money for my college. But now there is no point of regretting. Throughout the year, you will be listening to words like infractions, skills, EPIC values, contract, professionalism etc like all PROFESSIONALS of the world have just gathered in this organization. If you are willing to do a job of $12 an hour after 1 year of stressful time then this program is for you but if you want to gain skills then you should earn a degree like Associates or Bachelors. The staff is mostly those people who can't get a job anywhere else or those who have other responsibilities like doing PhD where they can't do any other job which can affect their studies but want to make some little money to meet their expenses. I held an Associate degree when I joined the program which many students at Year Up didn’t. I was one of the four students (out of 63 total students) to get A’s in all the classes but I was the 2nd last student to get an internship after months of wait and that too was useless internship. They keep asking you if you need any SUPPORT but their mouths will be sealed if you tell them of your real problems like financial responsibilities and you are not happy with your current internship (they just pretend that we are supporting the alumns). My point is that if I being a good student who has finished 76 college credits and maintained a good GPA of 3.70 is asked to apply for a jobs that pay $12 an hour, you can imagine what kind of SCAM program is this.

Aleah Prentice

They terminate students without warning and conduct suspicious activities. Moreover, the educators and administrators have no experience or education credentials. They also will just send your child to work a basic office job with no growth opportunities. Find another program that will actually HELP your child.

Ty Wil

TERRIBLE !! All the staff are ghetto and unprofessional but want to give speeches about how to build a professional brand. They are always late to meetings and work, when the subject was brought to their attention they had a reply with “I got my job, you still need to get yours” very disrespectful and discouraging. Also, forget about having a good internship if you aren’t one of their favorites , a lot of favoritism here which is ridiculous. They are not understanding either , you can live in Maryland and they would send you out to West Bubba with no additional pay.... all they are Worried about is the money . This place is a SCAM , the internships pay for the interns to be there so that’s why they will never care if you can’t make it because of money. DO NOR GO TO THIS GHETTO PLACE. A WASTE OF YOUR TIME AND ENERGY! Whitley Denison is very terrible and Duane Reid is never there and Guy just wants to here herself speak but she’s never there as well.