Mayor Alvin Brown and his Learn2Earn program learned the hard  way how tough it is to get state money when Gov. Rick Scott vetoed about  $300,000 that legislators had approved for it.

But Brown still will launch Learn2Earn this summer by drawing on $150,000 in  private donations from Florida Blue and the Farah & Farah law firm. That  money will be enough to give 200 teenagers a chance to spend a week on local  college campuses. They will sleep overnight in dorm rooms, go to classes and  work 20 hours at on-campus jobs, giving them a taste of what it's like to be a  college student.

"I'm giving them the real experience here," Brown said. "This is the real  deal, baby."

For students facing a tight job market, Learn2Earn is part of an expanded  lineup of job programs sponsored by the city and charitable contributions so  teenagers — a segment hit hard by the recession — can gain work skills.

The unemployment rate for the five-county Jacksonville metropolitan area has  improved the past year, dropping to 7.9 percent in April compared with 9.7  percent in 2011, according to state figures released Friday.

But teenagers and college students still face a crowded job market, often  competing against older workers with more experience, said Candace Moody,  spokeswoman for WorkSource, the regional agency that helps job-seekers find  work.

"It's not any better than it looked last summer," Moody said. "We're finding  it's really challenging still for young people to find jobs."

A $240,000 grant from The Jessie Ball duPont Fund, a philanthropy based in  Jacksonville, will pay for a new Jacksonville Summer Job Youth Job Preparation  and Employment Program for up to 100 students.

The city's Jacksonville Journey, established to fight the root causes of  crime, will once again provide jobs for 185 Jacksonville teenagers. The city  budgeted about $209,000 for those jobs at libraries, parks and community  centers.

Applications for that program came in so fast and furious in April that  officials shut down the application process early after fielding 400 requests in  four days.

The Jessie Ball duPont Fund cites a U.S. Census estimate that 5,000 Duval  County residents between the ages of 16 and 19 are on the hunt for  jobs.