Nonprofit organizations that offer youth development and young adult talent development services have increasingly centered the voices of the young people who are participating in their programs. They have accomplished this by infusing youth-centered practices into their programming and, more formally, creating leadership opportunities such as youth councils and alumni associations. This Jobs for the Future brief draws from interviews with program leaders and the young people they have hired to highlight how and why organizations have brought young people into paid staff positions, what the experience has been like for them, and the meaning they are making of their experience. This brief highlights four organizations in the Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP) initiative. LEAP is a national initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation that aims to help youth and young adults ages 14–25 who have been involved in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems, parenting youth or youth who have experienced homelessness succeed in school and at work by building and expanding education and employment pathways.

The Department of Labor announced up to $40 million in grants available for national out-of-school time organizations to expand local work-based learning opportunities, job training and career pathways for underserved youth during non-school hours. The Workforce Pathways for Youth demonstration grants will help these organizations partner with state or locally operated affiliate organizations that serve historically marginalized and underserved youth, ages 14 to 21. Priority will be given to organizations serving Native American youth.

Through the partnerships, out-of-school time organizations will introduce youth to career-related services, and provide work-based learning experiences and occupational skills training. They will also offer unsubsidized employment placements to increase opportunities for youth to gain the skills they need to be successful in post-secondary education and employment. The program also encourages partners across the workforce system to provide supportive services to address the mental health needs of participating youth.

Some of the most dynamic, responsive industry partnerships are developed between rural community colleges and local employers. When colleges, employers, and communities work together to create these place-based opportunities, they can develop workforce education and training programs and career pathways that put students on a path to good jobs, meet the workforce needs of local employers, and improve the economic prosperity of rural communities. This National Skills Coalition report highlights how industry partnerships benefit rural learners and employers alike – and shines a light on the rich variety of rural contexts, state systems, investments, and policies that can help drive and sustain effective partnerships between rural community colleges and local industry.

The National Center on Leadership for the Employment and Economic Advancement of People with Disabilities (LEAD Center) will be hosting a Good Jobs Initiative webinar on April 25, 2024 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET. Attendees will look at the construction industry to learn how inclusive hiring practices – including equitable workforce development pathways like pre-apprenticeship and Registered Apprenticeship programs, as well as labor-management partnerships – have benefited employees with disabilities and their employers in the construction industry.

College and career pathways are a critical strategy for supporting economic development in rural communities and creating economic advancement opportunities for youth. However, implementing pathways requires recognizing rural communities’ unique needs and opportunities. This Jobs for the Future resource includes a report and a brief which outlines three promising strategies for implementing rural pathways: build on local strengths and context, prioritize economic development, and embed remote opportunities.

Whether or not they have a strong understanding of all the options before them, many Gen Z youth are looking for faster, more economical, and more relevant on-ramps to meaningful jobs that offer life-sustaining wages and are aligned to their real interests. They want opportunities to learn and grow while working and earning—options that do not require them to put their lives on hold for years and accumulate life-changing debt in the process. This Jobs for the Future report is intended to improve public awareness of nondegree pathways by exploring how they benefit people and the workplace as well as barriers that prevent them from being mainstreamed.

Even in areas with strong public transit, many low-income families face transportation barriers that limit their access to good jobs. Vehicles for Change (VFC) is tackling this head-on, not just by providing cars, but by equipping individuals with the skills to maintain them and create a career path for themselves through their groundbreaking Virtual Reality (VR) Auto Technician Training Program. This National Association of Workforce Development Professionals is hosting a webinar on February 28, 2024, at 1:00 p.m. CT where attendees will hear about:

• The impact of reliable transportation and VR-powered skills training on breaking the cycle of generational poverty;
• A new training approach with VR; and
• National expansion plans.

The Mississippi Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (MIBEST) program provides pathways into college for adult education students across the state. MIBEST is a workforce and economic development effort led by the Mississippi Community College Board and implemented with the state’s 15 community colleges. MIBEST concurrently delivers short-term workforce training, career and technical education, and adult education. The program targets residents without high school credentials, individuals with low incomes, and nontraditional students. This Urban Institute brief is a supplement to their original evaluation and provides an analysis of two factors: the outcomes of student parents and the outcomes of students in different geographic regions.

Over the past three years, the Michigan Center for Student Success (MCSS) at the Michigan Community College Association has focused on implementing the statewide Strengthening MiWorkforce Pathways project. The workforce-focused initiative is one of many system-level efforts among states in the greater Student Success Center Network that embrace and recognize learner agility and learning that happens outside the traditional classroom. The explicit focus on credit for industry credentials provides a framework for state-level strategies supporting community colleges’ efforts to improve student completion rates. This Jobs for the Future post provides an overview of MCSS as well as focus areas for future considerations to support colleges in their efforts to establish equitable credit for prior learning policies and practices.

Federal and state funding for infrastructure, workforce and economic development, and apprenticeship expansion are flowing into states and regional and local entities. These funds are aimed at the needs of industry, creating equitable pathways to well-paying work, and advancing the workforce development goals of federal and state government agencies. The new funding brings challenges around coordination and ensuring it works well with existing workforce development efforts. This AIR blogpost describes two of the primary challenges that come with the new funding and promising solutions to address them.