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Youth CareerConnect: Engaging Employers and Workforce Agency Partners
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Youth CareerConnect: Engaging Employers and Workforce Agency Partners

Published: Aug 06, 2019
Publisher: Princeton, NJ: Mathematica
Human Services Employment Youth Employment Criminal Justice

Associated Project

Youth CareerConnect Evaluation

Time frame: 2014-2019

Prepared for:

U.S. Department of Labor

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy

Chief Evaluation Office

Authors

Erin Dillon

Key Findings

  • Employer partnerships grew stronger over the course of the grant and were supported by dedicated YCC staff.
  • Employer partners advised on program planning and curriculum, and supported increases in internships and mentoring over time.
  • YCC staff faced several challenges to providing work experiences and mentoring.
  • Workforce agency involvement was uneven across grantees, but these agencies provided program planning support and direct student services at some YCC grantees.
  • Schools planned to maintain employer partnerships and the YCC services that employer and workforce agency partners provided.
This report builds on the previous implementation reports by exploring how schools engaged employers and workforce agencies as partners. The report draws on data from three sources: a survey of all 24 Youth CareerConnect (YCC) grantees fielded in 2015 and 2017, information reported by grantees in the YCC Participant Tracking System (PTS) as of spring 2016 and spring 2018, and three rounds of visits and telephone calls from 2015-16 to 2017-18 to selected schools and partner organizations of 10 grantees. The survey gathered information about YCC program activities and services offered in one of the grantee’s high schools, the PTS collected information about the activities and services each YCC student received, and site visits and telephone calls provided in-depth information on the planning, design, and implementation of the YCC program.

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