In today's rapidly evolving job market, the importance of social capital, connections, and robust networks for youth career success cannot be overstated. Social capital plays a critical role in helping young people navigate the complexities of career development, and building it requires intentional effort and strategic planning. The National Youth Employment Coalition is hosting a webinar on September 26, 2024 at 2:30 p.m. ET to discuss the transformative power of social capital and potential strategies to help young people build it.

Most good jobs—those that provide a living wage—require some form of career-connected postsecondary education and training. And by 2027, 70% of jobs will require education or training beyond high school. The Department of Education (ED) is committed to working with state and local leaders to ensure every student has an onramp to college and to good jobs by reimagining how the nation’s high schools prepare all students to succeed and by providing students with accelerated and innovative opportunities to earn college credits and gain real-world professional experiences. 

This webpage, developed by Youth.gov and ED, describes ED’s strategies for ensuring every student has an onramp to college and to good jobs that provide a living wage. The webpage highlights programs and initiatives that focus on:

• Career success
• Dual enrollment
• Work-based learning
• Workforce credentials
• Career advising and navigation

This Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) report examines the link between measures of self-regulation skills and longer-term outcomes among adults with low incomes. OPRE drew on the conceptualization of self-regulation skills from the Goal-Oriented Adult Learning in Self-Sufficiency (GOALS) project and used data from the Evaluation of Employment Coaching for TANF and Related Populations. Using both sets of data, OPRE examined the predictive power of self-regulation measures by examining their link to future outcomes such as earnings and employment one year later.

Work Success is a novel program for adults with low incomes. It combines intensive group and individual coaching with workshops on topics such as resume writing, job search strategies, and interviewing skills. The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) is sponsoring an evaluation of Work Success as part of the Next Generation of Enhanced Employment Strategies Project. Mathematica is conducting this evaluation to explore the program’s implementation and its impact on the well-being of study participants. This OPRE report describes the design and analysis plan for the impact study of Work Success. It discusses employment coaching and explains why Work Success is expected to affect participants’ employment and economic security.

While there are many ways to structure direct cash programs, this EMPATH paper focuses on guaranteed income: monthly, no-strings-attached infusions of meaningful amounts of money. This paper shares highlights from interviews with eight social service organizations around the country that are implementing guaranteed income in tandem with an economic mobility coaching approach.

The National Youth Employment Coalition is hosting a virtual workshop on April 11, 2024 at 2:30 ET to provide an innovative approach to mentoring that combines technical skills and emotional intelligence, focusing on adaptability and resilience. Attendees will receive a toolkit to engage youth effectively in mentorship programs, including critical thinking, problem-solving, effective communication, and resilience skills.

January was National Mentoring Month, which highlighted the critical role that mentors play in the lives of youth and the extent to which young people have access to mentors in America. Unfortunately, new data indicate that decades of mentoring progress may be eroding at a time when youth mental health needs are soaring. This Annie E. Casey Foundation blogpost emphasizes trends, impacts, and recommendations for youth mentoring.

The Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau is hosting a webinar on February 13, 2024, from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET, where an expert panel will discuss the need for structured mentorship for women in the trades. Panelists will focus on best practices for program startup and review successful program structures.

While most employment coaching and other employment services are offered in a program office, school, other community location, or virtually, emerging evidence suggests that offering employment services in a participant’s home may have some important advantages. It puts the program staff and the participant on a more equal footing and encourages a strong relationship between them; it allows the program staff to gain richer information about participants’ strengths and areas of need; and it is easier, less costly, and less time-consuming for participants. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief describes why employment service practitioners more generally might consider offering services in participants’ homes. It also offers some considerations for program practitioners.

Self-regulation skills are the skills needed to finish tasks, stay organized, and control emotions. These skills are important for succeeding in work, school, and other aspects of life. But recent research suggests that the stresses and uncertainty of poverty can be overwhelming, leaving less mental bandwidth for effective development and use of self-regulation skills. For this reason, some TANF and other employment programs that serve adults with low incomes have begun to work on strengthening self-regulation skills by implementing employment coaching. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief shares promising strategies and lessons learned that human services staff might adopt to help program participants use and strengthen self-regulation skills.