Implementing High-Quality Youth Career Preparation Programs:
Guides for Stakeholders
Summary
These pages contain valuable information aimed at public, private, and non-profit stakeholders interested in supporting and/or offering high-quality youth career preparation activities. We are grateful to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the funding that supported the development and distribution of this information.
Three programs are profiled, and in each case, we provide you with a guide that features "how-to" materials, lessons learned, and recommendations for successful replication. This information is based on the experiences of the Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN), a twelve-year-old youth intermediary organization that manages a wide variety of career preparation programs on behalf of the Philadelphia Council for College and Career Success and the Workforce Investment Board.
Background
In 2008, Mayor Michael Nutter reconstituted the Philadelphia Youth Council and established it as the Philadelphia Council for College and Career Success. In addition to driving the city's ambitious education goals, the mayor charged the Council with overseeing and making recommendations on the use of Philadelphia's youth workforce development funding, including those funds available through the TANF Youth Development Fund and the Workforce Investment Act.
Soon after its creation, the Council and its subcommittees undertook a detailed review of programs currently being funded, with the goal of refining existing approaches and creating new designs in order to (1) better prepare Philadelphia youth for college and careers and (2) align funded activities more closely with the funding streams' performance measures.
Featured Programs
Of the new or revised approaches approved by the Council, three are featured in these pages, with detailed information for stakeholders wishing to learn more about them and practical, experienced-based ideas and recommendations on how to adopt similar approaches and put them into place. The three models include
- year-round internships, which provide young people with workplace experiences designed to impart employment and other 21st century skills, as well as to help them understand the relationship between doing well in school and in the workplace;
- industry pipeline models (IP models), which offer intensive workplace experiences over two or more years in high-wage/high-demand employment sectors, leading after graduation to entry-level employment and/or postsecondary education in related fields; and
- integrated academic and occupational skills-development in Philadelphia-area high-priority occupations, designed to equip young adults without a high school diploma with the academic and occupational skills they need for entry-level employment.
