Youth CareerConnect (YCC): Preparing for College and Career: Evidence from YCC Research Brief

The YCC program included employer partnerships and engagement, integrated academic and career curricula, work-based learning, and exposure to the world of work, individualized career and academic counseling, small learning communities, and professional development.

An evaluation of the YCC program, which included an impact and an implementation study, showed that: The program had a broad reach. The YCC program enrolled 31,019 students in 130 high schools that were located in 18 states and Puerto Rico.

The YCC program used career preparation to build academic skills. A career focus aimed to build students’ academic and career-related skills. A career focus aimed to build students’ academic and career-related skills High schools implementing the YCC program used careers as themes upon which to organize YCC program services and activities. Common themes included health care and social assistance, architecture and engineering, professional and technical services, computer and mathematical sciences, and information technology.

Services and activities offered around these themes fell into three program components: 1) preparation for college and career, 2) connection to career-track employment, and 3) academic and non-academic supports.

The YCC program offered services and activities that differed from other high school career-focused programs but required partnerships and staff time Staff were clearly able to explain ways in which the YCC program differed from other programs the school offered. Staff often articulated that both partnerships and YCC-funded staff were critical to offering many of these services and activities, particularly as they relate to work-based learning and dual enrollment. Staff voiced how a partner liaison was key to building the needed partnerships. Although the position had a variety of titles, individuals who filled it were dedicated to developing and maintaining partnerships with employers and institutions of higher education.

(This report is 6 pages long.)

The researchers identified the following findings:

1. The YCC program had small positive impacts on school attendance, credit accumulation, and proficiency in English language arts two to four years after program enrollment.

2. The statistical tests for significance at the 5% level suggest that the YCC program:

• Produced a small increase in school attendance.
• Produced a small increase in credit accumulation.
• Might have improved proficiency in English language arts.
• Had no effect on students completing algebra coursework.

3. The short-term impact of the YCC program might have varied by program experiences and maturation of the program, but not by key student characteristics.

• Impacts tended to be larger for students who received an internship, had a mentor, or completed an Individual Development Plan (IDP) compared to those who did not.
  The pattern of results suggests that the YCC program might have had a larger impact on accumulated credits, in English language arts proficiency, and algebra progression for students starting the

YCC program in the last two years of the grant than those starting it earlier.

The YCC program did not affect high school graduation and other measures such as high school behaviors, postsecondary preparation, and employment readiness among early cohorts.

The researchers identified the following recommendations:

• Taken together, the researchers’ results indicate that the YCC program had small and statistically significant impacts on short-term successes students could achieve while in high school and that is associated with longer-term education and employment success.
• Future studies would need to assess whether these improvements translate into the long-term gains the program intended, an important link because previous research has shown that impacts of these types of high school interventions on employment can sometimes take years to surface.
• Future research might expand upon our finding that impacts might be larger for those who received an internship, had a mentor, or completed an IDP than those who did not.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2019
• Author(s): N. Maxwell, E. Dillon
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies