Progress and Opportunity in Youth Apprenticeship: Looking Back on Four Years of PAYA

Youth apprenticeship is a promising strategy for challenging persistent inequities in young adults’ educational and employment outcomes. Since New America launched the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) with a coalition of National Partners in 2018, interest and investment in youth apprenticeship has grown significantly, fueling growth, learning, and innovation in this fast-growing field.     

Now, as PAYA celebrates four years of progress as a national initiative, we invite you to hear from youth apprentices, industry partners, policymakers, and education and workforce leaders from across the PAYA Network about what it takes to build and grow high-quality youth apprenticeship programs that serve the needs of students, employers and communities--and where the field is heading next.  

Please join us on Thursday, November 17th from 9 AM to 1:45 PM during National Apprenticeship Week for a series of discussions about the past, present, and future of youth apprenticeship in the U.S.

Agenda:

9am-9:30am: Light breakfast, registration

9:30am-10am: Welcome and Opening Remarks

• Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America
• Taylor White, National Director, Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship & Senior Policy Advisor, K-12 & Workforce

10am-10:40am: Expanding Options and Opportunity through Youth Apprenticeship
Despite recent growth, youth apprenticeship opportunities remain relatively uncommon nationally. How and why do young people pursue an apprenticeship and what is their experience like? This panel will feature current and former youth apprentices discussing how apprenticeship has set them up to succeed at work, at school, and in life.

• Youth Apprentices from the DC Metro Region
• Moderator: Brittany Brady, CEO, National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity

10:45am-11:25am: Building Youth Apprenticeship Partnerships & Programs: Reflections from PAYA Pilots
Youth apprenticeship requires collaboration across education, employer and community partners who work together to design and deliver programs that balance the learning needs of youth with employers’ needs for talent. In this session, PAYA Grantees will share lessons learned from leading public-private partnerships to build and implement high-quality, equitable youth apprenticeship programs.

• Daphne Ross, Senior Director, College Success and Communications, Say Yes Buffalo
• Michelle-Marie Gant, Senior Vice President and Director, Diversity and Inclusion, M&T Bank
• Stephanie Gomez, Director, Career Launch Chicago, City Colleges of Chicago
• Darius Caffey, IT Pathways Program Manager, Rush University Medical Center
• Kate Blosveren Kreamer, Deputy Executive Director, Advance CTE (moderator)

11:30am-12:15pm: Aligning Systems to Support Youth Apprenticeship Through Innovations in Policy 
Youth apprenticeship programs provide seamless pathways from high school into postsecondary education and into the workforce. But building bridges across these systems to facilitate these pathways is no easy feat. This session will feature state and federal system leaders leading ambitious change agendas to align systems to support the growth of youth apprenticeship.

• Dr. Bruce Mack, Vice President of Economic Development for the North Carolina Community College System
• Manny Lamarre, Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of Labor
• Tony Harl, State Director of Career and Technical Education with the Indiana Office of CTE under the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet
• Rachael Stephens Parker, Program Director, Workforce Development & Economic Policy, NGA (moderator)

12:15pm-12:45pm: Lunch

12:45pm-1:30pm: Investing for Quality, Equity, and Scale in the Field of Youth Apprenticeship
As public and private investment in youth apprenticeship continues to grow, youth apprenticeship program and system leaders are balancing the need for quality with a quest for scale. In this session, philanthropic leaders will discuss how youth apprenticeship advances a wide range of aligned investment priorities and highlight strategies to promote quality, growth and longevity in the field.

• Allison Gerber, Director, Employment, Education & Training, Annie E. Casey Foundation
• David Etzwiler, CEO, Siemens Foundation
• Isa Ellis, Senior Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Kevin Carey, Vice President, Education Policy and Knowledge Management, New America (moderator)

1:30pm-1:45pm: Closing

• Mary Alice McCarthy, Senior Director, Center on Education and Labor at New America