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

In October 2023, the Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion featured presenters who shared insights on employer practices that consider the mental health and well-being of youth who are transitioning to the workforce, with a particular focus on youth of color. The webinar was intended to help employers understand the importance of mental health and trauma-informed practices in relation to their talent acquisition and workforce retention processes.

In October 2023, child welfare leaders, researchers, caseworkers, advocates, and foster care alumni convened for a two-day Think Tank event. The event elevated the voices of lived experts to identify promising practices and barriers. This Chapin Hall report documents the proceedings, highlighting the themes that emerged as participants described the importance of permanent connections and what systems can do to foster healing relationships for emerging adults in care. The report also summarizes the key values that guided the planning process, and how those values were demonstrated in inclusive, youth-centered, trauma-informed practices throughout the Think Tank.

A job can have a profound effect on someone’s well-being. A good job creates financial stability, can make a person feel more secure, and help them plan for the future. And when workers have a voice and opportunities to learn and grow, good jobs promote a sense of belonging. In May of 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) launched a new webpage devoted to young people’s mental health needs. This webpage emphasizes that the workforce system is an important partner in supporting the mental health of young people, and that good jobs are a critical component of well-being and security. The DOL is committed to equipping the workforce system with resources and connections to ensure that youth employment programs are a bridge to the wellness services young people need.

This National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC) workshop will discuss strategies to make workplaces and workforce transition programs inclusive for youth with disabilities. These strategies ensure that outreach content on social media, physical workspaces, and documents given to youth employees are accessible for all and can be implemented without any programming experience. Additional strategies will cover actions that supervisors and coworkers can take to make youth employees with disabilities feel included. This NYEC virtual workshop will take place on July 11, 2024 from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET and aims to give youth workforce specialists and employers tips on making sure youth employees with disabilities can succeed and feel included in their workplaces.

The University of Arizona’s Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities is hosting a webinar on July 16, 2024 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. MT, which will cover Pre-Employment Transition Services and highlight Work Base Learning Experiences (WBLEs). Speakers will discuss how the Center for Excellence in Disabilities is working collaboratively with Window Rock Unified School District to develop WBLEs for their transition-aged students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Led by Chicago Public Schools and City Colleges of Chicago, Career Launch Chicago is an initiative working to develop youth apprenticeship programs that offer young people throughout the city opportunities to build in-demand skills and prepare for quality jobs in multiple high-growth industries, including advanced manufacturing, health care, and information technology. It also hopes to expand early college courses that are relevant to those pathways in target high schools and develop a work-based learning continuum that extends into earlier grades. Jobs for the Future published this profile which offers an in-depth look at the model Career Launch Chicago is developing, with examples of structures and approaches that other intermediaries and apprenticeship providers could apply to their own programs. It also offers recommendations of ways to scale youth apprenticeship by better integrating education and workforce systems.

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.

MDRC partnered with JPMorgan Chase to promote continual improvement among their Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) grantee organizations through research. SYEPs are a workforce development model predicated on promoting socioeconomic advancement for young people ages 14 to 24 who are disconnected from school or the labor market. MDRC collected data in the form of interviews and metrics aggregated and interviewed six SYEP providers to share specific insights about a particular program component—soft-skills training. “Soft skills” refer to the general habits and competencies that make for an effective employee, such as arriving at work on time, cooperating with coworkers, taking and giving direction, communicating clearly, dressing appropriately for the workplace, and so forth. This MDRC brief presents findings that showcase ways that soft-skills training, as a workforce development intervention, can put young people on the path to high-paying jobs and socioeconomic advancement.