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JPMorgan Chase & Co. began a learning and evaluation practice of its summer youth employment program (SYEP) portfolio in 2022. At the time, the organization was providing grant support to 27 organizations that offer summer work-readiness training to young people between the ages of 14 and 24, including social service agencies, community-based organizations, and economic development agencies. JPMorgan Chase partnered with MDRC to promote continual improvement among these organizations through research. MDRC collected data in the form of interviews and metrics aggregated from nearly all providers. Afterward, MDRC invited 10 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.) These providers were selected for such reasons as tenure in the field, depth of training reported in previous interviews and surveys, and responsiveness to MDRC's email outreach. Six SYEP providers responded to the invitation and are highlighted in this brief. The brief begins with an overview of the literature on the labor market value of soft skills, before explaining a particular type of labor market-advancement strategy: SYEPs. The brief then addresses how soft-skills training can be embedded successfully into the SYEP model and concludes with recommendations for the field. Ultimately, the findings presented in this brief are intended to 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.

This brief examines the challenges youth face in the current job market and proposes recommendations for a national subsidized employment program that prioritizes equity and amplifies youth voices. The insights provided in this brief are informed by several listening sessions with members of the Communities Collaborating to Reconnect Youth Network (CCRY). CCRY is a national learning community that brings together leaders from different youth workforce systems who focus on reconnecting youth with education and career pathways. Drawing insights from the CCRY Network, this brief provides recommendations on how decisionmakers can center youth voice and equity in the policy development and program design for a scaled-up national youth subsidized employment program.

What are the barriers to employment for young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) or who have experience of care? What works best to support them? In partnership with the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), our latest report draws conclusions from a survey of practitioners and young people to understand the barriers they face, what services are offered, and what is considered to work best in helping NEET young people--and especially care leavers--to progress into work. More than one in ten young people in the UK between the ages of 16 and 24 are classified as not in employment, education or training (NEET), and the rate of young people being NEET has not fallen below 10% over the last twenty years. We know that being NEET can have immediate negative consequences for a young person, such as decreasing levels of self-esteem, increasing the likelihood of engaging in risky behaviours such as substance misuse and criminal activities, and increasing their chances of living in poverty. While there has been much research into the factors that lead to becoming NEET, how these can be mitigated, and the impacts of being NEET, there is not the same body of evidence to inform the support provided to young people to move into and stay in education, employment and training (EET). This study looks at what the existing research has to say and surveys young people and the practitioners who work with them on four key questions: (1) What are the key barriers to EET for young people and care leavers who are NEET?; (2) What is currently offered to young people and care leavers in terms of entry to EET support?; (3) What is currently offered in terms of in-work support for young people and care leavers?; and (4) What types of provision are most effective at dealing with the barriers young people face to EET? Drawing out lessons for practitioners and policymakers, this study contributes to our understanding of what young people see as the issues, the support they need and what service providers are offering to some of the most vulnerable people in society. [This report was produced with the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA).]

Exploring Summer Youth Employment Programs: Increasing Access Through Career Pathways builds the case and provides actionable recommendations for state-led support in the intentional alignment of summer youth employment programs (SYEP) with career pathways and the work-based learning continuum, including through Career Technical Education (CTE). This tool was produced through JPMorgan Chase's "New Skills ready network," a five year, $35 million initiative aimed at developing equitable career pathways and policy recommendations that give underserved students access to higher education and real-world work experiences that lead to high-wage, in-demand jobs.

Employment is foundational to young people's successful transition into adulthood, yet many youth with lived experience in the foster care system struggle to obtain employment that provides a living wage. Youth with foster care experience typically do not have the same contacts and connections to employment opportunities as youth who have not been in foster care and cannot rely on the economic support of their family. In addition, transition age youth currently or formerly in foster care are more likely to be unemployed than their peers, and when employed, they typically earn less than their peers. Therefore, transition age youth with foster care experience need additional supports and resources to secure and maintain employment during their transition into adulthood. In this report, the authors highlight recent data on employment for youth with foster care experience. They identify ongoing challenges that youth with foster care experience face in participating in workforce readiness training, and finding and maintaining employment that pays a living wage. Additionally, they highlight a few existing supports for current and former foster youth. Finally, they provide policy recommendations and perspectives from youth to help their peers overcome these challenges and thrive in their careers. [Additional support for this report was provided by additional Maya Kamath, Nima Rahni, and Ted Lempert.]

The Newark Opportunity Youth Network (NOYN) contracted with the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the youth workforce development system within the state. The study documents how the youth workforce system developed in New Jersey since the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) took effect, how it currently functions, and the financial and systemic realities that historically have been an impediment to a more collaborative approach. An unfortunate truth is that sometimes state legislatures design policies that, perhaps unintentionally, inhibit a community's ability to achieve collective impact through leveraging multiple resources. Compliance-driven funding models that limit a program's ability to connect with other programs to expand the impact, or disconnected public agencies that allocate funds and operate programs, to name a few, create obstacles to achieving collective impact. This research aims to provide stakeholders, including direct service providers and policymakers, with the tools to navigate these obstacles to better serve young people in New Jersey. The literature available around youth workforce development specifically in New Jersey is sparse, so to complement the literature review, researchers conducted in-depth interviews with local and national experts in youth workforce development. For those who advocate on behalf of the population of opportunity or alternative youth, the question demanding an answer is what can and should be done to improve the system of youth workforce development to better serve disconnected youth? This study begins to respond to that question. [This report was produced with the Newark Opportunity Youth Network (NOYN), with funding from the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions.]

Texas has long been an innovator in policies, systems, and practices to ensure that young adults from low-income backgrounds are prepared for postsecondary education and careers. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis have cast a harsh light on the importance of reengaging young adults who are disconnected from school and work and putting them on a path to success. This population, known as "opportunity youth," is so named based on the promise they hold for society as a whole and for themselves and their families. Their numbers grew dramatically in 2020, and that rise calls for bold action. This paper provides a starting point for movement on Texas state policies that can be built upon, strengthened, and/or implemented. Jobs for the Future brings its evidence-based Back on Track model to this work, helping schools and programs implement proven practices to boost the success of opportunity youth. Evaluations have shown strong evidence that Back on Track improves postsecondary enrollment and completion by opportunity youth.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought on an employment crisis alongside falling college enrollment rates, which reached historic lows at two-year institutions. Would these twin crises provide the motivation and opportunity that states, education institutions, and employers needed to make meaningful progress toward a more flexible and integrated learning system? To find out, we interviewed 31 K-12, state, and nonprofit leaders who have been focused on redesigning education and career pathways. We asked them how their work has changed in the last year and what their priorities are as the nation emerges from the pandemic. In these conversations, we learned about efforts to coordinate education and workforce systems that have too long been disconnected: (1) As schools and workplaces went online, states built virtual college and career counseling tools that were accessible to anyone with an internet connection--not just students currently enrolled in K-12 or higher education institutions; (2) The pandemic brought on widespread experimentation with the five-day school schedule, new familiarity with virtual learning models, and a desire to wait on attending college. This created opportunities to innovate on how learners connect with industry during and beyond high school; (3) Postsecondary institutions and states have demonstrated renewed interest in microcredentials to help people rapidly enter or re-enter the workforce. While we saw higher education and industry make significant strides to align and collaborate, we saw few innovations initiated by K-12 systems. We offer four ways states can engage K-12: (1) Invest in virtual platforms that support college and career navigation; (2) Incentivize bold experimentation with hybrid learning to design new models that blend school and workplace learning or connect with postsecondary microcredentials; (3) Step in to encourage and regulate high-quality, postsecondary microcredentials that stack toward associate and bachelor degrees; and (4) Combine policy with technical assistance to help districts credit out-of-school learning.

The State of Youth Employment is the second segment of a research series focused on understanding the experiences, assets, and conditions that shape young people's career development. Finding a Way Forward--a 2020 exploratory study based on interviews with young people across the country--yielded several findings about how young people experience entry to and growth within the world of work. Insights included how young people conceptualized becoming ready for work, the connections and support that facilitate their professional development, and the inseparable relationships between their professional and personal lives. The State of Youth Employment builds upon that qualitative study to explore the state of young people within the workforce in this current moment in history. This publication aims to elevate young people's work and career experiences over the past year to inform youth-centered policy, practice, and economic recovery efforts moving forward. [For "Finding a Way Forward: Young People's Experiences Navigating the World of Work," see ED610277.]

For decades, Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs) have provided income, career exposure, and real-life work experience for thousands of young people across the United States. Yet year after year, youth and community leaders report that there are not enough summer jobs to go around. Some cities pressure underfunded SYEPs to serve all youth who apply, while others hold lotteries to dole out limited slots. Ultimately, hundreds of thousands of youth find themselves unemployed every summer. Recent interviews with SYEP funders, providers, advocates, and participants in 6 U.S. cities explored what it would take to guarantee a high-quality summer job to all youth. Among the insights that emerged, one theme became clear: Young people want more than a summer job; they want career-focused work experience that is worth their time and responsive to their day-to-day realities. This document outlines strategies suggested during stakeholder interviews. Far from a framework or checklist, these considerations should serve as conversation starters to help communities think beyond SYEP as we know it and propose SYEP as it could be.

This resource outlines a menu of actionable strategies for local leaders for workforce-related recovery efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding recession. These strategies focus on evidence-based interventions and approaches which promote inclusive recovery. We categorize these strategies by goal, type of action, and phase of pandemic reopening so local leaders can choose options best suited for their current circumstances. For each strategy we provide a description, supporting evidence, specific actions for local leaders, and useful examples and resources.

Youth with disabilities face barriers to success that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemic of racism that has generated protests in support of Black Lives Matter. The Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) reached out to a group of youth and young adults with disabilities to share their most pressing concerns and to share their advice to service providers and other adults about how to support them. Young people shared that the major barriers they are facing during the pandemic are: (1) accessing technology; (2) participating in school; (3) access to jobs; (4) dealing with mental health concerns; (5) access to basic needs for their families; and (6) obtaining health care. With these barriers in mind, IEL designed a community forum that put youth voices at the center of the conversation. Youth with disabilities including youth of color led the conversation about the current pandemic and how it is affecting them, their families, and their communities. On May 28, 2020, IEL invited more than 200 participants to join in-depth discussions about the main topics identified by youth to discuss the strategies, effective practices, and resources. Many more people wanted to participate in this session, so IEL has captured the major themes from the Youth Voices Community Forum. IEL is pleased to share this report with the field to better understand what youth with disabilities are facing and how best to support them. Several of the youth co-authored this report, providing quality reviews of the summaries and offering clarification of ideas. This report includes notes from the general session, each breakout session, and a list of resources shared by topic area among participants. Links to resources are provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only.

Young people face myriad obstacles in finding work, and more than 71 million are unemployed globally. Many of these youth have limited job search skills, poor labor market information, and difficulty accessing jobs, obstacles more pronounced for marginalized youth and first-time work-seekers. Digital professional platforms may give some youth a more effective way to find work than traditional job search strategies. In this brief, the authors explore digital professional platform use in developing economies. They then present evidence on low-cost ways to teach youth to use these platforms. The authors end by drawing policy implications for the education and workforce development field.

The future of work--resulting from fast- paced changes in technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and fluctuations in the way we perform work--will create economic growth and new jobs across the country, but only for communities that are prepared and for workers with the necessary skills. This report outlines Jobs for the Future's policy recommendations to prepare opportunity youth to meet the challenges the changing nature of work poses.

Around the world, young people face considerable challenges. Even before the disruption of the Covid-19 crisis, policymakers were seeking to respond to rapid technological advances, climate change and -- in some countries -- an ageing population and workforce. While children and young people worldwide generally have high aspirations and ambitions for their futures, evidence shows that they often face problematic and protracted transitions into work. In this context, new pathways from school to employment are needed. In this paper, we review extensive evidence to provide guidance on how children and young people can be best prepared to succeed in their school-to-work transitions, both now and in the future.

This is the executive summary for the report, "Finding a Way Forward: Young People's Experiences Navigating the World of Work." It presents findings from a new qualitative study that explores specific questions about work and careers from the perspectives of 65 young adult participants in five career pathways programs across the country. This qualitative report provides a glimpse into their perceptions of their career journeys amidst today's changing employment landscape. [For the full report, see ED610277.]

"Finding a Way Forward: Young People's Experiences Navigating the World of Work" presents findings from a new qualitative study that explores specific questions about work and careers from the perspectives of 65 young adult participants in five career pathways programs across the country. Grounded in the key components of the YES Project's Ready, Connected, Supported framework, this report provides a glimpse into young people's perceptions of their career journeys amidst today's changing employment landscape--specifically those young people who represent groups often excluded from policy conversations: young people of color, those whose families have immigrated to the United States in search of new opportunities, and those from economically disadvantaged and working-class backgrounds. By elevating young people's perspectives, this report aims to expand understanding of the most important components of early career development in ways that can inform youth-centered research, policy, and practice. [For the executive summary, see ED610279. This report summarizes findings from a qualitative research study that explicitly examined the YES Project's Ready, Connected, Supported framework. For that report, "Ready, Connected, Supported: A Framework for Youth Workforce Development and the YES Project," see ED606354.]

Young people face particular disadvantage finding employment, compared to older workers. This includes a lack of labour market and job-search information and experience, as well as a mismatch between youth aspirations and labour market realities, with limited job led growth. The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance on how the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) can support government and partners to support adolescents to make a smooth transition from school to decent work. Skills development is a necessary, but not sufficient, component of such programming. Specifically, this Technical Note provides advice on: (1) Barriers for young people in accessing and developing skills for work and making the transition to decent work; (2) Programming principles to guide the design of UNICEF programming in the school to work transition area; (3) Evidence-based strategies for smoothing the transition from school to work with a focus on improving the work outcomes for older adolescents and young people; (4) Tools and resources for developing programs and partnerships, including working with other UN agencies, to ensure continuity of services as the most vulnerable young people transition from childhood into adulthood; and (5) Case studies of UNICEF programs that have improved the skills and/or work outcomes of older adolescents. [This note was produced by the UNICEF Education Section. ING on the Power for Youth Programme provided funding which made development of this note possible.]

Opportunity Works was a three-year effort led by Jobs for the Future to help opportunity youth--young people ages 16 to 24 who are not in school or meaningfully employed--access postsecondary and career pathways. Based on the Back on Track framework, seven cities across the country undertook collective impact approaches with diverse partners to provide supportive, enhanced preparation and postsecondary/career bridging for eligible young people, with a particular focus on young men of color. A quasi-experimental evaluation conducted by the Urban Institute in three Opportunity Works sites found large, consistent, positive effects on participants' postsecondary enrollment and increased connection with either education or employment about one year after program entry. Specifically, Opportunity Works participants were twice as likely to enroll in college and 25 percent more likely to be in either education or employment. Postsecondary results were even greater for young men of color, who were nearly six times as likely to enroll in college. This report also includes insights and lessons from qualitative field research. [This report was written with Adaeze Okoli and Natalie Spievack.]

The first few years after high school are often viewed as crucial, laying the groundwork for the rest of a young person's life. Decisions made between the ages of 18-24 often guide further steps in a young person's life and can influence their ability to establish a satisfying and financially sustaining career. With that in mind, our new site, cowendata.org, and the accompanying executive summary, aims to answer the question of what young people in New Orleans are doing after high school by looking at their educational and employment pathways. Specifically, cowendata.org and the executive summary work to answer some key questions we often hear with regards to young people's post-high-school lives: How many of New Orleans high school graduates continue their educational journeys and go to college, and when they do, for how long, and where? How many enter the workforce and find jobs? If they're working, in what industries are they employed and are they making a true living wage? What are the best economic opportunities available in New Orleans and nationally right now, and what may be the best opportunities five or ten years in the future? What skills do they need to take advantage of those possibilities?

Despite the growing popularity of apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and in-school youth apprenticeships in the United States, young adults who lack the credentials and connections to seamlessly enter postsecondary pathways remain overlooked. Young-adult-serving agencies and community-based organizations (CBOs) are underutilized key actors in employer-driven approaches to worker development. In this brief, the authors explore: (1) How CBOs serving young adults can connect constituents who are not in school or employed in high-demand careers through apprenticeships; and (2) How the CBOs can operate within a broader landscape, particularly with employers, workforce intermediaries, and other apprenticeship partners. This brief is organized in three sections. Section 1 defines apprenticeship--particularly Registered Apprenticeship--within the workforce development system and highlights why the model can be particularly valuable for young adults lacking on-ramps to skilled jobs. Section 2 considers how CBOs that serve young adults can learn from other CBOs that have successfully connected underrepresented populations to Registered Apprenticeships. It outlines a range of roles and activities that leverage the mission and capacity of CBOs, and offers keys to success. Section 3 brings together the first two sections with summary recommendations for CBOs as well as considerations for other key stakeholders, such as employers, workforce boards, city and other public and private partners, and policymakers. [This brief was produced by Jobs for the Future's (JFF's) Center for Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning and was funded by Salesforce.org as part of JFF's Apprenticeship Awareness and Expansion Initiative.]

Attaining a college degree is a well-recognized path to economic mobility in the United States, but enrollment gaps among students by family income persist. Interestingly, recent research finds this disparity to be particularly visible in communities where top ranked universities reside. In these communities, residents with no-affiliation to their local university face low rates of economic mobility from one generation to the next and universities see low rates of application and enrollment from nearby neighborhoods struggling with poverty. This pattern is reflective of the deep economic divides that exist between the families of students attending selective universities and local residents. On average, the median parent household income of college students at these schools is more than $62,000 greater than the median household income of residents in the community surrounding the college campus ($116,687 compared to $54,174, respectively). Many schools are now actively seeking ways to bridge the divide between students and the surrounding community through local engagement and improved recruitment. This brief describes a unique partnership between Washtenaw County, MichiganWorks! and the University of Michigan (UM) to pilot a university-engaged Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) and highlights opportunities this model presents for both universities and local youth. Data from this brief come from the first year of the partnership.

Opportunity Works is a national initiative to dramatically improve the life trajectories of low-income young people ages 16 to 24 who are not in school or working. This population, often called "opportunity youth," comprises a significant segment of America's potential workforce. Yet they are also the young men and women who face the greatest barriers to entering and advancing in the labor market. Launched in 2015, Opportunity Works has demonstrated how to make a difference in the lives of young people who find themselves without a clear path forward. Opportunity Works served more than 2,000 teens and young adults. Their successes include: (1) More than 800 individuals earned a high school credential; (2) Nearly 1,000 participants enrolled in postsecondary education or training; and (3) Almost half of all participants were young men of color. These initial results are particularly powerful for a population that has had limited access to effective programs in the past. In this report, the authors highlight lessons learned from the initiative, which was based on Jobs for the Future's (JFF) "Back on Track" model to reconnect opportunity youth and guided by JFF coaching to local anchor organizations and service providers. The authors also describe the complex nature of what it takes to reach these positive results and the many interlocking pieces that are part of the solution. [This report was produced by the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions. Additional funding was provided by the Andrus Family Fund and the Ballmer Group.]