This guide is structured to help organizations interested in launching or expanding high-quality youth apprenticeship programs assess their partnership's needs, assets, and goals as part of a comprehensive strategy development process.

To encourage partnerships to prioritize programmatic development alongside efforts to develop policy and align systems in support of scale and long-term sustainability, this resource is organized into three strategy domains:

Domain One: Program Design, Development and Implementation

Domain Two: Policy Development and Systems Alignment

Domain Three: Planning for Scale and Sustainability

For each domain, the guide includes a set of guiding questions to structure conversations amongst partner organizations as they collaborate to identify shared priorities and action steps. In addition, each domain includes links to external resources that partnerships can consult for additional information and technical support on specific elements of their work and strategy.

Ultimately, this guide is intended to help youth apprenticeship partnerships engage in a collaborative, comprehensive strategy development process that positions themselves–and, by extension, the students and businesses they serve–for long-term success and growth.

As youth apprenticeship continues to grow and evolve through the PAYA Network (insert link to map) and related efforts across the U.S., this guide will be updated to reflect new developments, insights, and resources, and to remain responsive to the needs of this fast-growing field.