Eduployment: Creating Opportunity Policies for America's Youth

“Without the necessary skills or access to a job, one in five of America’s youth are confronted with a future without income, a future of severe poverty, a future without opportunity” (p.2). This paper introduced the concept of "eduployment," a term recognizing that learning and work are inextricably linked and opportunity policies for youth must prepare young people for postsecondary success, rather than college or a job. It outlined an opportunity policy agenda that included attention to keeping students in school, offering all young people early work experiences, ensuring students graduate with a meaningful diploma, and creating a system of supports to ensure students' postsecondary success. (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

“It is not for lack of trying that our young people are increasingly facing such a dismal future. Our country has been working hard to improve the education system and expand opportunities for learning. Yet we have been hampered in addressing the crisis for three reasons: • Rigidity in framing the pathways to adulthood: We rely too heavily on out-of-date dichotomies—school or work, college or careers—when shaping educational opportunities for young people. This bifurcation leads us to undervalue the role of work and career development in motivating students and creating a college-going culture” (p. 3). • “Mismatch of policies and investments: Our communities have been trying to plug this growing crisis with irrational federal, state and district policies, short-term grants, and a hodgepodge of small programs” (p. 3). • “Short-term responses: The scale of the crisis is well beyond our current public investments and policy infrastructure. At most, through the mishmash of programs, we are offering a door to college and careers for 10 percent of the young people without a high school diploma” (p. 3). In response to these challenges, the authors argued that "we need to design an overarching opportunity policy for our youth, a youth policy designed for this century, not the last. There are three elements needed to create an effective, overarching policy agenda: a vision for the changes we want to see in young people’s lives and how communities offer support; organizing to inspire national, state and local leadership to do the right thing for our country and our young people; and an agenda that makes it clear that all of our young people need a job and an education that prepares them for postsecondary employment success" (p. 6). The paper concludes with recommendations on how to design the eduployment framework, build momentum, leverage change, and enable philanthropic collaboration in order to create this agenda. (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2013
• Author(s): Sturgis, Chris
• Organizational Author(s): Connected by 25; Youth Transition Funders Group
• Funding Source: Youth Transition Funders Group
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies