Coming of Age at Work: Good Jobs for Teens

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Matt Helmer: Welcome, everybody. My name is Matt Helmer. I’m the Director of Job Quality and Worker Well-Being at the Economic Opportunities Program at the Aspen Institute.

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Matt Helmer: On behalf of us at EOP and our colleagues at the Forum for Community Solutions, who we’re co-hosting this event with today, it’s my pleasure to welcome you to the conversation. Coming of age at work, good jobs for teens.

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Matt Helmer: This conversation is part of our Opportunity in America series. During these events, we try to bring together different thought leaders from kind of different perspectives and different domains, to talk about the changing nature of our economic landscape, and really how we try to foster an economy that works for everyone.

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Matt Helmer: Before we get started, as always, just a quick review of our technology. All of our attendees are muted. Please use that Q&A button at the bottom of your screen to submit and upvote questions. We’ll try to get to as many of those as we can.

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Matt Helmer: If you have ideas, examples, resources, or just want to share your perspective, please do so in the chat. If you want to post about any of this on a social media platform.

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Matt Helmer: Our hashtag is TalkGoodJobs.

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Matt Helmer: If any technical issues pop up during the webinar, please message us in the chat, or email us at eop.program at aspeninstitute.org.

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Matt Helmer: We are recording this event, we will share it via email, and we will post it on our website if you want to take a look at it again later.

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Matt Helmer: We do have closed captions available as well, just click that CC button at the bottom of your screen to activate those.

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Matt Helmer: So turning to today’s event, this is the second conversation in a two-part series we’ve been having called Exploring the Past, Present, and Future of Youth at Work.

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Matt Helmer: During the first event back in November, we looked at the growing crisis of child labor and, really what we could do to address that. In today’s conversation, we’re gonna talk less about what we prevent and kind of more what we foster and facilitate.

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Matt Helmer: In terms of good jobs for age-appropriate youth. And we’ll have a particular focus on thinking about teenage workers today.

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Matt Helmer: Just a few quick, kind of, facts and stats to ground us a bit in today’s conversation. So the Fair Labor Standards Act governs a lot of youth employment. It basically says young people must be 14 to work and can only work up to 3 hours per day during the school year. There’s some exceptions to all of that.

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Matt Helmer: And there are restrictions on what industries teens can work in up until 18 as well. Maybe not enough restrictions, but there are some restrictions that prohibit work in certain industries to try to protect our young people.

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Matt Helmer: We currently have about 6 million teens between just 16 and 19 working today, about 2 million of them between 16 and 17, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Matt Helmer: They’re typically working in the industries we associate with young people’s work, leisure and hospitality, retail, and some in education and health services.

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Matt Helmer: Median wages are about 15 or 16 bucks an hour, but, you know, obviously that can vary widely by state, given minimum wage laws.

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Matt Helmer: Currently, the unemployment rate for 16 to 19-year-olds is about 14%, so it’s almost, you know, triple kind of the national average for adults.

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Matt Helmer: What these numbers tell us, you know, gives us a sense of kind of the scale of teen employment.

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Matt Helmer: But they don’t tell us much about the quality of those jobs, which is really what we’re here to talk about today. They don’t tell us whether a young person’s first job builds confidence, helps them build skills, provides mentoring, opens doors, fosters inclusion and belonging.

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Matt Helmer: Or whether these jobs, you know, simply fill, kind of, hours and pay a basic wage and is more of a transaction. And those differences matter enormously, right? I think research consistently shows that positive early work experiences correlate with better employment outcomes later in life.

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Matt Helmer: So, the question we’re here to answer today is not just can we get teens a job and whether they’re working, it’s really how do we get them jobs that are worth doing?

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Matt Helmer: And I think we as a society, have accepted somewhat that bad jobs are inevitable for people’s first jobs. We’ve kind of normalized this idea that your first job is something you kind of… it’s a rite of passage, and maybe something you have to endure.

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Matt Helmer: Rather than an experience that we should really be investing in and structuring appropriately.

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Matt Helmer: But that’s the story of our larger economy, too. We’ve accepted bad jobs as kind of this fixture of our economy, that low wages, unpredictable schedules, few opportunities for advancement and growth are just a natural part of our economy, a natural part of certain jobs.

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Matt Helmer: And that has costs for workers of all ages. But it can have really bad costs for young people in particular, because they’re often entering the labor market kind of at the bottom, right? And they have little leverage to demand better.

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Matt Helmer: So when we treat, kind of, low-quality jobs as inevitable, it lets businesses, policy makers, and institutions off the hook. And I think we’ve been saying for a while now, these are choices, and it doesn’t have to be that way.

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Matt Helmer: I think the other part of today’s conversation is being a little bit honest about, for many young people, work isn’t optional, right? They’re not doing it because they want to save money for a car, they’re not doing it to build their resume, or to…

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Matt Helmer: think about how it might support their college application. They’re doing it because they need to contribute to their household’s income, right? Many of the families around the country themselves are kind of caught in this

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Matt Helmer: Cycle of low-wage jobs with unpredictable schedules and insufficient benefits. And for many households, teenagers are a part

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Matt Helmer: of helping supplement the income so that those families can meet their basic needs. So when we talk about job quality for young workers, it’s really a story, a bigger story about the wider economy and the crisis of job quality that we’re facing.

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Matt Helmer: And I think part of what we’re talking about today, too, is that as long as we have and allow low-quality jobs and worker exploitation to exist anywhere in our economy, young people are always going to be amongst the most vulnerable to that exploitation and to low-quality work.

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Matt Helmer: As I said, they’re entering the labor market kind of at the bottom rung, right? They have less experience, oftentimes, they have less power to negotiate, and fewer alternatives overall. So part of the answer for creating better jobs for teens is creating better jobs for everyone, raising the floor for everyone.

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Matt Helmer: Ensuring that all jobs meet a basic standard of decency and fairness. But I think we’re going to take a deeper dive in today into what else teens need to make sure that first job is a good job.

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Matt Helmer: This requires more intentional investment, more intentional design around things like supervision and skill building and mentoringhip and making sure that teens can balance school with work.

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Matt Helmer: So it turns into a real, genuine developmental experience, rather than just a transaction. And our wonderful panel is going to take a deep dive into that today.

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Matt Helmer: But let me introduce our first speaker, Chef Gabrielle Gabby Smith.

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Matt Helmer: Gabby by short. She’s a senior at Johnson & Wales University, pursuing a degree in food and beverage entrepreneurship.

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Matt Helmer: Where she won a four-year tuition scholarship in the Future Food Competition with a dish rooted in Galah cuisine.

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Matt Helmer: Through her brand, Grits and Gabs, she blends cultural storytelling with contemporary culinary innovations. She champions sustainability, local sourcing, and zero-waste cooking.

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Matt Helmer: She’s also the founder of Plate It Forward, an initiative dedicated to mentoring the next generation of food and beverage professionals, but she got her start with a youth apprenticeship when she was back in high school, and she’s going to talk

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Matt Helmer: just a little bit about her journey to help set the stage for today’s conversation. She was traveling today, so she submitted some pre-recorded remarks, and we’re going to show those to you all right now.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: So, my name is Gabrielle Smith, I’m a senior at Johnson & Wills University, Providence. I am majoring in food and beverage entrepreneurship, with a concentration in, obviously, culinary arts.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: My journey starts at, like, what, my sophomore year of high school, I decided to,

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: I was like, my mom is an administrator at the school district I was a part of, and she…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: encouraged me to sign up for an apprenticeship program that she, heard about at one of her meetings. And at first, I was like, oh, okay, like, I’ll sign up for it, not really thinking much of it. It kind of was just, like, another thing for me to do, as I approached junior year, and I didn’t think much of it.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: So, I signed up for it. I heard back from my hiring manager and the apprenticeship coordinator at Charleston Regional Youth Apprenticeship Program, which is the premier and leading, apprenticeship program in Charleston, and I got accepted. It was my,

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: technically my second job, but my first, like, real job I had to apply to, and I had to make a cover letter and use my resume for. So I was really excited, and I didn’t know what to expect, but I started working right away.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: They gave me about 2 weeks, and then I started working.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: I went to go meet my manager. I had a very informal interview. It was… I came there, and I was, like, in a suit jacket, and I was just so prepared to be… ask so many questions, but it was really, really formal, I mean, informal. And… it was just, like, a really good conversation I had with my manager, and I really think that that, created a bond between me and her, that first interaction.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: But, fast forward, I started working. I was managing my school schedule, my busy junior year schedule, with my work schedule. In the fall, I started at Trident, Culinary School of Charleston.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: And that was when I first started my culinary classes. I really enjoyed those, my foundational classes. I met so many wonderful people, students who were just like me, people who were older than me. Being at a community college, you kind of meet everybody from all walks, different walks of life.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: So yeah, and then I ended up, like, I worked, and I worked, and I worked. I would go to school for…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: my junior year, I would go to school for the whole day, and then around… I would check out, or…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: Yeah, I would get out of class early, get out of school early, and, go to work. And I would be at work till, like, 10 o’clock at night, and I really enjoyed every minute of it. My senior year looked a little bit different, because I had already, at that point, I had already obtained my certificate in culinary arts. I decided to, move forward with my degree.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: in Applied Science and Culinary arts, so that meant I was taking a little bit, some extra classes. They were a little bit harder.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: I would say, like…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: the most important thing I learned during that time was it’s really important to plan, and, it really helped me build my time management skills.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: I think if I hadn’t learned about how to manage my time effectively and efficiently, and, really

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: tell people and show, and tell people, hey, I have to do this, this is more important than, you know, me going to the mall right now.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: I have to get done what I need to get done with for work and school, and then I can, do whatever else outside of that later. I think if I did not learn how to advocate for myself in my time, I would not have been where I am right now.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: And that’s just a skill that I think will stick with me for the rest of my life, and I try to tell other, like, teenagers that, hey, sometimes you have to put things on the back burner,

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: Just to… do what you have to do.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: But my senior year, I ended up applying for, colleges, just like everybody else.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: I… my dream school was Johnson & Wills University, where I am right now, and I saw that they were offering a scholarship, full tuition for 4 years. I applied to it. I ended up, it’s a competition format, so, I competed with, 5 other culinary students across the country.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: And I went to Providence, Rhode Island, I competed, I submitted a recipe, and I won it, and I decided to go to Johnson & Wales Charlotte, for my junior year. But, yeah, so I…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: I, at this point, I had, been enrolled at Johnson & Wills for my junior year.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: And within that year, I have met so many people. I had gotten out of my comfort zone.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: I’ve said yes so many times. I said yes to everything, and I think, that’s what also helped me get to where I am right now. Saying yes to be a part… being a part of Youth Council’s PIA, Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship got me my first, like.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: taste of what it means to be on a youth council, and what it means to, be a part of advocacy, and just learning that

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: you know, you, and there’s so many other people around the country who are in the same predicament as you, or in the same boat as you, and being able to build a community, and see a community of people that… at first, we were all just on Zoom. Like, we met once a month on Zoom.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: I think seeing them in person and really, like, being in fellowship with them has really helped me as well, learning what community means.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: Okay, so now I’m a senior at, like I said, I’m a senior at Johnson & Wills, so I am almost done. I graduate in May. I do think that mentorship is also a really, really important fa- a really, really important factor in my career, personally, and I know in other people’s careers as well.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: mentors have definitely… they continue to, and have definitely been, like, one of the most pivotal points of my career, just networking and meeting other, like, like-minded individuals.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: I’ve been, like…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: I’ve been blessed enough to have mentors that come from other industries as well, and I think that’s a really, important topic to touch on as well, just because you can see things from other, from other points of views.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: And when you’re able to do that, it kind of…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: gives you a broader perspective of, you know, what you can do, why you’re doing things, and everybody has something different that they can bring to the table, as far as what their expert… what their expertise is in, or, you know, what they can offer you, what they can help you with. So, I would say.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: putting some effort into, you know, finding a mentor, building relationships with people is really important. Yeah, and then, like, I want to touch on that point a little bit about, like, expanding your skill set,

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: professional development is super important to me. Not… I want to make sure that other chefs, other culinary professionals understand that they don’t have to just be, you know, on a line in the back of someone’s restaurant.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: just working and working and working long hours. They don’t have to do that. They are just as…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: Are just as worthy, to…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: Take whatever knowledge that they learn, professional knowledge,

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: like, education that they have and they have learned, and take it way further than working on someone’s line.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: I think chefs don’t understand that they… we hold a lot of skill, and…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: that skill can be turned into things that can turn into intellectual property, those things can be monetized, and I really…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: believe in that, so I… I have a startup called Plato Forward, where we are… where I’m building an educational curriculum for, chefs, basically an accidental manager. I’m trying to take…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: people who were line cooks or, chefs and turned them into managers and leaders. And I think that’s just what the future of food and beverage is, is just empowering, food and beverage hospitality professionals to be much more than what they think they can be.

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: And to go further than they ever thought they would. Another last thing I do want to touch on is, like, remaining teachable. I think education never… education…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: goes far past, like, the classroom. With my mom being an educator, that’s, like, education is my life, education is, like, a pillar of my personality. So, I think education and learning is…

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: never-ending. It’s infinite. So remaining teachable,

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: putting yourself in situations where you have to be taught, where you have to learn, is super important, whether it’s in academia, or whether it’s in professional development, with work or your career, or just learning a new skill. I think education is very important,

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Audio shared by Tony @ Aspen: For anyone who’s looking to do any career of any sort.

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Matt Helmer: Thank you, Gabby, for those remarks. I’ve got to watch those remarks a few times now, and I take something different from them each time. Such great leadership from a young person, and such deep wisdom from a young person in many respects.

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Matt Helmer: Let me get to our panel and introduce them, along with our moderator at this point. So joining us today, and they’re each gonna start to pop on screen here, hopefully.

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Matt Helmer: We have Jessica Martinez, who’s the Co-Executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, National COSH by short. Mandy Polanski, the Director of Economic and Workforce Development in the Community Health Institute at Northwestern Memorial Healthcare.

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Matt Helmer: Taylor White, Director of Post-Secondary Pathways for Youth Program at

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Matt Helmer: New America’s Center on Education and Labor, and John Valverde, President and CEO of YouthBuild Global, and a Aspen Fellow. He was in our Sector Skills Academy, many, many years ago.

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Matt Helmer: I’ve gotten to know John over that time, and glad he’s able to reconnect with us and be here today.

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Matt Helmer: And we’re so grateful, like I said, to be co-hosting this event with our colleagues at the Forum for Community Solutions at the Aspen Institute. So let me turn it over to my colleague there, Mike Swiger, who’s the Deputy Director of the Forum, and he’s going to moderate today’s conversation. So Mike, thanks again for being here and working with us on this, and I’ll turn it over to you.

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Mike Swigert: Thank you so much, Matt, and it’s an honor to be with this esteemed panel, with hundreds of practitioners and leaders joining us from around the country. And thank you, Gabby, for sharing your story and wisdom.

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Mike Swigert: As Matt said, I’m with the Forum for Community Solutions at the Aspen Institute, where I help lead the Opportunity Youth Forum, working with communities across the country to expand opportunity and build pathways to education, work, and well-being for young people.

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Mike Swigert: What struck me in Gabby’s story is how much of what shaped her path wasn’t just the role she held itself when she started her apprenticeship, but everything around it. It was the conversation with a manager, she said the first words her supervisor said, the chance to learn alongside colleagues, people of different ages.

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Mike Swigert: Mentors who expanded what she thought was possible, integration with education, and the decision to say yes to leadership, opportunity, and community.

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Mike Swigert: As Matt teed us up brilliantly, good jobs for young people are places where young people have a voice, where they’re not just working, but contributing meaningfully, building relationships and growing, where they can connect to, or at least explore, their sense of purpose.

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Mike Swigert: It’s not just a paycheck, although fair pay very, very much matters, especially when that income is helping keep the household afloat.

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Mike Swigert: But early work experiences are a place where identity is also forming, where confidence is built, where young people begin to see what they’re capable of and what they deserve.

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Mike Swigert: And yet, for too many teens in this country, first jobs and early career work more broadly fall short of that.

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Mike Swigert: Those work experiences can be unsafe, they can be disconnected from any real pathway to mobility, or they can simply underestimate young people, seeing them as temporary labor instead of emerging talent and the leaders of our country in them.

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Mike Swigert: What would it look like if we took young workers seriously from the very beginning? What if the early rungs of our career ladders or lattices of our contributions to our ever-shifting economy were designed not just for productivity, but for the growth of those young workers, for learning and exploration, nurturing agency and leadership, like Gabby described?

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Mike Swigert: We’ve got a really extraordinary group of leaders here who are working on this from different angles, safety, career pathways, employer practice, and youth development, so I’m excited to dig in. Let’s start by getting to know each of you. Taylor, I’d like to start with you, since you know Gabby.

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Mike Swigert: Tell us a little bit about yourself and the focus of your work at New America, and I’d love to hear your reactions and reflections on Gabby’s remarks as well.

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Taylor White: Sure, thanks, Mike, and thanks for having me. So I’m Taylor White, as you said. I’m a director at New America Center on Education and Labor, where I lead work that’s focused on helping communities build stronger pathways from high school into careers, especially through work-based learning models like Youth Apprenticeship.

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Taylor White: And Gabby is a great example of one of the programs we’ve worked with for many years. For me, what really resonates in Gabby’s story, and Mike, you mentioned some of this, but was really how intentional her experience was, right? She had a supervisor who invested in her. She had a chance to learn real skills. She had a chance to apply classroom learning in meaningful ways in the workplace. She earned a wage while she was doing that.

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Taylor White: And she had a clear pathway forward, not just a short-term job.

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Taylor White: That sort of structured combination is really rare for young people in this country, and most teens’ early jobs are really short-term, they tend to be disconnected from school, they may be disconnected from prior jobs or future jobs, and they’re really not designed with young people’s growth and sort of professional maturation in mind.

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Taylor White: So a lot of the work that I do at New America is focused on helping systems, not just individual programs, think about how we can create more experiences like the one that Gabby described. No, Gabby is a remarkable woman. She went through a remarkable program, but she is, like, all on her own, sort of a rock star. And so, like, a couple of things she didn’t name in her remarks. Gabby earned an associate’s degree on her own before she finished high school.

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Taylor White: left high school, with a diploma, with an associate’s degree that she earned, with credentials in her, field of choice, and she’s a senior at Johnson & Wales now, but she has not been there for 4 years, because she got a head start. She won the scholarship and was able to matriculate there and will graduate without any debt at all. But she did a lot of that, on the sort of edge of

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Taylor White: her formal apprenticeship program, right? They supported it, they worked around it. Her employers, I know, did a lot to adjust her work schedule to make that possible, because she was so committed and her family was so committed to it. But, you know, because she had this structured program to go into.

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Taylor White: I think it… she is a testament to… I mean, like, I can’t really say much better than she did, right? But, I mean, some of the things that she named it that I think are really important, and I hope come up, throughout this conversation, I was really struck, I mean, she learned to be an advocate for herself. That’s something that a lot of young workers do not learn to do early on. Some of us don’t learn to do it until we’re many decades into the workplace, and realize that that’s something you can and need to do.

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Taylor White: She talked a lot about time management, public speaking, mentorship, and you know, even though that job really did… her first job as an apprentice really was on the, like, quote-unquote bottom rung, to use the term that we’ve used, so far, and she had a very clear path to getting up that ladder, and a lot of support in doing so. So, to me, Gabby’s story is powerful, not because it’s unusual, although it is, but because it shows what’s really possible when the right structures

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Taylor White: are in place to guide a young person from that first rung into what comes next for them. So…

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Taylor White: That’s me. Thanks for having me.

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Mike Swigert: Love that. Thank you, Taylor. Let’s turn to John. John, tell us a bit about yourself and your journey to this work, and a bit about the history of YouthBuild. YouthBuild Global in the YouthBuild movement, a name many of us on this call know and recognize.

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John Valverde: Thanks so much, Mike. I’m honored to be part of this amazing group of colleagues today for this important conversation, and big shout out and hello to any youth builders in attendance today. I definitely want to say hello.

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John Valverde: I’m now in my 10th year as president and CEO at YouthBuild Global, I can hardly believe it. And if I had to say…

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John Valverde: Where does my YouthBuild story begin?

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John Valverde: I would say it was in 1992, when I was incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility at the age of 21, the same age of men as many YouthBuild students.

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John Valverde: And early on, I reconnected with my father, I had been estranged from him, and he said to me, accept full responsibility for your crime, seek to make amends, and say yes as much as you can to help others, and you will find purpose and meaning and be free.

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John Valverde: Over the past 34 years, 16 of them in prison, I’ve done my best to live my father’s request.

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John Valverde: I share this because I know YouthBuild is about second chances. In fact, I think YouthBuild is about real first chances for young people.

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John Valverde: And I do feel we partner with young people aged 16 to 24 who left high school before completing and are not working. So, out of school, out of work.

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John Valverde: And I know many of you YouthBuild as a career readiness program rooted in construction. YouthBuild Affordable Housing, right? The origins of our name.

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John Valverde: But we have adapted and evolved over the past 48 years, and the past 34 as a federal program, the Youth Build Federal Program, to operate at the nexus of education, employment, and positive youth development.

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John Valverde: And we’ve expanded into careers beyond construction, including energy infrastructure, manufacturing and logistics, healthcare, food service, hospitality, and others.

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John Valverde: For YouthBuild, it begins with a developmental relationship foundation we call YouthBuild Love.

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John Valverde: This love creates the conditions for young people to thrive, and then a comprehensive model

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John Valverde: that integrates leadership development, support services, career pathways, education, and alumni success. Embrace and support, this young person in their journey.

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John Valverde: From one site in East Harlem in 1978, YouthBuild has grown to 340 sites in 7 countries around the world, and over 220,000 young people have journeyed through the YouthBuild experience.

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John Valverde: We continue to support Second Chances for young people, and I’m grateful to be living part of my own second chance here at YouthBuild.

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Mike Swigert: Thank you, John. It’s an honor to have you here.

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Mike Swigert: Jessica, please introduce yourself and tell us about National Kosh and some of its work with young people and other workers who face heightened risks on the job.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Absolutely. Hi, everyone. Thanks for having me. It’s really great to be in this conversation, and a shout out to our local cash groups and labor partners who may be on this call.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: As stated, I’m Jessica Martinez, and I serve as the Executive Director at the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. We are a national network of grassroots workers’ safety organizations across the country, that fight for every worker’s right to safe and healthy jobs.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And before I begin, I just want to acknowledge, and shout out some of our advocates on the call who are joining us today. They are on the ground every day, in the communities, the schools, the workplaces, the worker centers.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: and then neighborhoods that help, you know, turn our ideas of worker safety into something, like, that’s tangible and real. And National Kosh is only a strong leader, with the youth organizers, the worker advocates, and the community members who power the movement, right?

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: I also, come to this work at a very personal level. I am the daughter of immigrants and come from a working-class family, where work was never an abstract concept, right? Work meant survival for us, it meant sacrifice.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: It meant long hours, in many cases, doing whatever is necessary to provide an opportunity for the next generation.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And like so many people in this country, I understood, I grew up understanding that work could create dignity and also mobility, but I also saw how work could come with, pain.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: risk.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: exploitation and sometimes being silenced. And that is why this conversation about young workers matters to me deeply. You know, it is their… for many young people, a first job is not just a paycheck.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: It is their first lesson about what society believes they deserve. You know, we asked many questions about, will they be trained? Are they respected? Will they be protected? And we want to make sure their voice matters, right? And I think…

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Particularly, through our Fired Up Workers for Heat Justice campaign, one story comes to mind, which is that of Ricardo, who’s an 18-year-old

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: farm worker in Fresno County in California, where I’m based.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: whose parents came from Oaxaca and Tijuana, seeking opportunity. And Ricardo worked side-by-side with his mother, in Greatfield, where temperatures regularly exceed over 100 degrees, and he described

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Dizziness, exhaustion, and pressure to keep moving because pay dependent on

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: on his level of production. So, what moved us, you know, was he worried less about himself and more about watching his mother’s body.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: break down, after years of labor and extreme heat. And Ricardo reminds us that many young workers are carrying the adult burdens long before adulthood begins.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: His story is not unique. Young workers today are entering restaurants, hospitals, retail stores, airports.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: delivery work, service jobs, and many are eager to prove, themselves, you know, that they are, they’re okay to help and support their families.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: like Gabby, many are navigating school, in some cases are caregiving. There’s, pressures on immigration at the same time for those that come from immigrant working families.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: But many times, they enter the workforce, without enough training, as mentioned, without enough support, supervision, or really knowing what their rights are.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And at National COSH, we work with young workers, through leadership development, know your rights training, youth organizing, building worker power, and campaigns that help them exercise those rights to shape safer workplaces. Some of our local COSH groups run youth-led programs, like Teens Lead at Work.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Shout out to Mascos, who’s based in, you know, in Massachusetts, where teens are training other teens, conducting school safety audits, organizing around heat, bullying, climate justice.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And one of the most powerful things we see is that young people bring, you know, this knowledge back home. They talk with parents about wage theft, injuries.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: heat protections, harassment, labor rights, and in many cases, they become, you know, translators, advocates, and bridges of information inside their own household. So when you really think about investing in young workers, we’re not only helping one person.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: We are often strengthening entire families, communities, because, you know, young people do not just need protections.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: We’re helping them build power, really. So, thank you for having me.

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Mike Swigert: Thank you for being with us, Jessica, and I’m excited to dig in, but first I want to bring in Mandy to this conversation. It’s great to have you here, Mandy. Tell us a bit about your background and your work at Northwestern Memorial.

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Mandee Polonsky: Sure, hi, thanks, Mike, for having me. I’m so honored to be part of this group. My background, actually, I started my career in Teach for America. I’ve taught

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Mandee Polonsky: third and fourth grade in the Bronx, way back when, and I bring that experience with me everywhere I go. I left there, came back to Chicago, where I am now, for grad school, and at the time had the opportunity to go and work for Chicago Public Schools in the out-of-school time programming. I stayed there for a long time and learned a lot. I saw some former United Way colleagues

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Mandee Polonsky: to coming on, and I got a chance to work there for 5 years and learn, sort of, how education works in the broader, you know, the broader context of everything that we all do, and now I get to bring that here to Northwestern Medicine, where

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Mandee Polonsky: I work on, youth programming, workforce development, I’m the director over economic and workforce development programming in our new, Community Health Institute, and we think every day about, great pipelines, all of the work. Gabby sounds like a shining star and an example of someone that we would hope would, you know, thrive here, too, where we give opportunities.

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Mandee Polonsky: she says yes to everything. We hope we give those opportunities from high school into our undergraduate programs. We now have

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Mandee Polonsky: seven departments doing apprenticeship opportunities and thinking about that, and then I also think about our economic development and who we are as an anchor institution in the city of Chicago and beyond. We are the third largest private employer in the state of Illinois. We have over 42,000 employees now, across northeastern Illinois. So thinking about who we are.

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Mandee Polonsky: as who, you know, who we’re hiring, where we spend our money, how we do construction, you know, where our suppliers, where our food comes from, thinking about all of that, and so I bring all of that with me, in every day, and,

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Mandee Polonsky: I am just grateful to be here, so thank you.

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Mike Swigert: Thank you, Mandy. So…

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Mike Swigert: We’ve touched on a number of different themes, dignity and mobility, structuring and integrating education and work opportunities, authentic relationships, investing in young workers, not just for them, but for their communities.

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Mike Swigert: that’s the work that each of you are doing every day with your teams and partners and community members. Let’s explore some of the challenges that we face in this work. Where are we as a country falling short of

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Mike Swigert: Providing good quality work experiences for our young people, and what’s getting in the way of that. And Jessica, I want to start with you. One of the things that often gets left out when we think about good jobs for young people is safety, and Kosh, this, you know, you are advocating for that, the partners on the call.

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Mike Swigert: are on the front lines of ensuring that workers of all types have safe work environments. And in the past few years, we’ve seen too many examples of young people being injured on the job.

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Mike Swigert: Can you help us understand what’s driving that, and what makes young workers especially prone to facing risks in certain industries?

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: I appreciate the question, and I have to start by saying that one of the biggest myths in this country is that youth employment

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: naturally builds character or opportunity, and that can be true, as we see in cases like Gabby, right?

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: But, but too often, early jobs are where young people foresee encounter exploitation, has been, been our, our reality. Young workers under 25 make up nearly 19.4 million workers.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Nationally. Yet emergency room injury rates for youth workers are roughly twice as high as workers over 25.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And we know why. You know, in our experience through our programs, it’s less training, you know, less experience, there’s a pressure to move fast, there’s a fear of speaking up.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: There are supervisors who treat them as disposable labor and lack of knowledge of rights, you know? Those are… young workers are heavily concentrated in… in industries that I mentioned before, which are… pose a lot of high hazards. Fast food, retail, warehousing, construction, landscaping.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: I shared Ricardo’s story in agriculture, and these sectors are often combined low wages and high hazards, right? So we see that, and that means…

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: you know, consequences like burns and cuts and heat illness and robberies, sexual harassment, workplace violence. So, for many immigrant youth or youth of color, the risk multiplied because of racism, language barriers.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: retaliation fears and economic pressure, right? We saw this, in the heartbreaking ways with a 16-year-old, another story is Mason Siss, who died inside an industrial machinery

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: at an Alabama poultry plant, and no young person should lose their life trying to earn money. That’s just the reality. So I encourage our audience

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: to look up Mason Sisk, and learn about his story. But, on average, we know that 3 teens die each week from workplace injuries in the United States. So let me state that again, it’s 3 teens die each week.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And that should shock us all, really. So when we talk about good jobs for teens, you know, we really believe that safety is not optional. Safety is a foundational piece of the education and training we provide to workers.

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Mike Swigert: Thank you, Jessica. Sobering, and that is… that is a foundation. John, let’s turn to you. I mean, YouthBuild Global thinks about job quality all the time, and who are… how do you work with employers to support them to… to provide

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Mike Swigert: good work experiences, and you’re dedicated to supporting opportunity youth, young people ages 16 to 24 who are not working or in school, often navigating significant barriers. Can you tell us more about who YouthBuild serves,

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Mike Swigert: What a good first job or career experience looks like in that context, and where our systems are or aren’t lining up with what young people need.

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John Valverde: Yeah, well, I just want to say, Jessica, what you shared is just… I mean, it’s devastating.

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John Valverde: And… we’re working with young people at YouthBuild, we’re working with young people.

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John Valverde: I hate these labels, you know, we all have to use them, but they’re all from economically disadvantaged communities, they’re all vulnerable young people. I like to try to reframe to say they are young people with the most barriers to success.

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John Valverde: and the least resources to access opportunity, and that’s absolutely true for YouthBuild. As a federal program, which I referenced earlier, YouthBuild only exists in communities with very high unemployment rates. So…

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John Valverde: The fact is that these communities have higher rates of poverty, higher rates of crime, higher rates of health disparities and issues, etc.

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John Valverde: So again, we’re supporting young people in very vulnerable situations, and it’s important to say that out loud. And 85% of the young people of YouthBuild are young people of color.

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John Valverde: And as, Mike, you just said, they’re all… they all haven’t completed high school and don’t have work experience. And we all know the challenge that that is, and how easy it is, as we’ve just heard, it is… it can be.

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John Valverde: for unscrupulous employers to take advantage of young people in these vulnerable situations. So these are the folks YouthBuild is working with, and our role, which I reference in my opening remarks, is to build on this foundation of love rooted in developmental relationships. So the role of staff

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John Valverde: at a YouthBuild program. This is the key, and Gabby said this so beautifully as well,

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John Valverde: Surrounding young people with people who see them, hear them, seek to understand them, and value them.

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John Valverde: from the very beginning of their YouthBuild experience, and then YouthBuild working at the local level, and us at the global or national level.

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John Valverde: To build the relationships with employers and other trainers and amazing partners like the ones on the panel today, to ensure that the young person’s

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John Valverde: pathway is filled with this experience of high expectations, respect, dignity, we’ll say love again, because you feel love is huge for us.

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John Valverde: And Gabby said this as well, a sense of community, a sense of belonging.

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John Valverde: and mentorship that comes with it. When you surround young people with people who truly, truly see the power and potential they have to transform their lives, their communities, their families.

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John Valverde: so much is transformed. That’s the key to everything. Then you can lay on top of that.

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John Valverde: Great career training programs, education programming, leadership development.

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John Valverde: provide the wraparound supports. So the key for us in what a quality first job looks like

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John Valverde: involves us bringing employers into YouthBuild.

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John Valverde: So that they can experience and have proximity to the young people, to the communities that our young people and their families come from.

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John Valverde: So that they can buy in early on to see, hear, understand, and value this young person, so that they’re ready to be that manager like Gabby had, that mentor that Gabby had.

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John Valverde: And these caring adults that ensure that a young person’s first job experience

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John Valverde: is fantastic, so that they’re inspired to keep on that journey. And then we serve as an intermediary, so they can keep coming back to us in their growth and professional development.

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Mike Swigert: Thank you, John. So, safety is foundational, and that sense of community, belonging, relationships are foundational. And what are the ways that we can…

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Mike Swigert: Create the conditions where that will show up on the job for young people.

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Mike Swigert: Taylor, let’s turn it back to you. For the last few decades, this country has emphasized college as the primary opportunity for young people to move into upwardly mobile careers, and we shifted away from vocational education and work-based learning, and now maybe trying to correct for that.

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Mike Swigert: What do you see as some of the root causes of the challenges that teen workers are navigating in today’s economy, both in terms of the labor market, but also the paths, the sectors, or career pathways that we’ve been pushing people towards or away from?

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Taylor White: Yeah, thank you. It’s a good question, and it’s a complicated answer. I guess I will start by saying I think the sort of narrative around right now, like, we push too many kids to college, and so now what we need to do is create alternatives that don’t require college.

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Taylor White: while there is some truth to that, I also think it’s really important to underscore that college still carries, like, a significant wage premium, and so when we say to kids.

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Taylor White: for families, your kid doesn’t need college. That’s not really true, right? I mean, but we know that in the future, the vast majority of jobs in this economy are going to require some sort of post-secondary education. So this myth that we can create all these alternatives that bypass post-secondary education, that lead to really good jobs, that pay family-sustaining wages, like, it is a myth, right? I do work on apprenticeship. A lot of people position apprenticeship as an

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Taylor White: Alternative to college.

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Taylor White: It may be an alternative to a four-year degree as the first thing that you do after high school, but we really emphasize the importance of having those apprenticeship pathways connected to post-secondary training, connected to college-bearing coursework, so that young people have options expanded through these programs rather than narrowed. Mike, you mentioned, yes, there’s this sort of disinvestment in career and technical education and vocational education over

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Taylor White: the last several decades. That’s absolutely true. Some of that is a response to the fact that the sort of vocational education systems of yesteryear led to a lot of race-based tracking, and it was built to funnel young people into dead ends. Certain young people into dead ends, everyone else got to go to college.

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Taylor White: The truth is that there have been a lot of really important reforms to career and technical education, and research shows that there are now, quite a few benefits when young people pursue career and technical education programs that are embedded within rigorous academic coursework, right? Not… again, the idea is to not fork young people off early, and sort of do that sorting hat, if you will, in 8th or 9th grade, and send some kids to jobs and some kids to college.

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Taylor White: But to really find ways for them to have, both of those experiences, and to be building career, sort of technical skills, while also developing foundational, you know, and vitally important literacy and numeracy skills, all of the things that you would in high school.

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Taylor White: But when you look at the, the data, I mean, our government, our federal government right now is, is, sort of very…

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Taylor White: supportive of the idea of CTE, supportive of the idea of vocational education, but the truth is that in inflation-adjusted terms, we invest about $2 billion less in career and technical education today than we did in 1980. And so, while it’s something that we’re all sort of singing about and talking about, the federal government has not put its money where its mouth is in quite some time.

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Taylor White: And so, you know, that’s not the whole story, though. Mike, you asked the question about the labor market itself, right? So, education, yes, we’ve pushed a lot of kids into college. We’ve sort of cut funding for pathways that could supplement that sort of more traditional academic route. We have sort of said to people that the only way to a good middle-class job is to go to college, which doesn’t have to be true, but it really is the best way to find one right now, and we’ve really under-invested in

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Taylor White: routes to help young people sort of have a supported transition out of high school into anything other than that four-year degree. So there’s this idea that you graduate from high school, and you’re sort of on your own to figure it out. Navigate the labor market, navigate this sort of immensely complex

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Taylor White: Credential landscape.

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Taylor White: And that’s… it’s not working for a lot of young people, right? The other thing is that the labor market itself has gotten a lot more complicated to navigate. For young people, at the beginning of this call, we named a number of the industries where young people are, represented and typically take sort of those first jobs. Many of those jobs, those sort of true entry-level jobs, have disappeared.

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Taylor White: The labor market participation rate of young people is way down, and that just means for anyone on the call who, isn’t… doesn’t spend a lot of time in labor data, that, like, young people aren’t working as much. Many of them are going to school for longer, or when they’re looking for jobs, they’re really struggling to find them. And that’s, again, because the sort of nature of the part of the labor market where young people sort of get that toehold and start working, has atrophied over the last several days.

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Taylor White: Young people are overrepresented in the gig economy, in these sort of transitional roles. Those places, you know, offer a lot of flexibility, and they may feel very attractive and entrepreneurial for young people, but they tend not to be good jobs, they don’t offer benefits. They’re not really structured to support young people’s growth over time.

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Taylor White: A couple of things that I would just name in addition to that. One is just this idea of credential inflation. We know from research that a lot of jobs that historically required just a high school diploma now list bachelor’s degrees as a requirement, and many of them also require 2 and 3 years of experience. That’s an awfully hard thing to get, particularly if the way to get it is through unpaid internships. That disadvantages a lot of our young people who cannot work for

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Taylor White: free, and nor should they, right? So this idea that it’s harder to sort of access an entry-level job

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Taylor White: Is, is affecting young people.

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Taylor White: And I would say that the sort of exacerbating that is this idea that you sort of need

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Taylor White: More credentials.

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Taylor White: deeper networks, more people to help you launch your career, and we’ve made it more and more difficult for young people to develop those and find those people in their worlds, as high schools, I think, and the education pursuit has become sort of tighter and tighter and tighter around them. I often say that, like, we sort of have built high schools to wall young people off from the world they’re ostensibly being prepared to enter, and then we’re sort of surprised when they get out there and they struggle.

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Taylor White: But they’ve never really had a chance to try on hats and be poss… you know, meet their possible selves out there in the real world. And so when we think about ways to address this, obviously there are challenges with labor market entry that need to be attended to. There are challenges at the high school and post-secondary level that need to be attended to. But we also, I think, need to stop thinking about high school students and young people as these sort of,

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Taylor White: like.

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Taylor White: you know, it’s only our responsibility until the second that they graduate, and then they’re out there to fend for themselves, and a lot of our systems are set up to do that for young people, and increasingly for reasons that John has named and Jessica has named, we know that’s just not working for more and more and more young people, and so we really need to rethink the structures that exist around that school-to-work transition.

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Mike Swigert: Thank you, Taylor. Indeed, the labor market has gotten a lot more complicated for young people to navigate.

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Mike Swigert: Mandy, you represent, among multiple things, a really large employer, an anchor employer in your community, and I understand Northwestern has evolved in recent years in its approach to work with youth and teens in various different ways. Can you tell us a little bit more about that evolution towards thinking about

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Mike Swigert: Your work with young people as community outreach or development, or moving that towards truly building and retaining talent for the system?

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Mandee Polonsky: Yeah, and we’re grappling with a lot of exactly what, Taylor was talking about. So… so I started 8 years ago here. Our… we had what’s called our Discovery Program, which is career exposure at two of our sites. Kids needed a great GPA, and they had to pay for it, and I was like, no, no, no, no, no, we’re not doing that anymore.

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Mandee Polonsky: So we flipped that, and now, we are at… all of our sites have the opportunity, so all 11 hospitals, have that opportunity for students in their neighborhoods to apply, come get that career exposure, and then we offer, instead of… we used to have a stipend at the end, we are paying them hourly rate for 8… 6 to 8 weeks in the summer, because we know we don’t want that to be a trade-off at

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Mandee Polonsky: for them to have those experiences, in internships with us in the summer.

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Mandee Polonsky: we doubled our, intensive programs that students are here, also paying them, if we’re forcing them to be here for our programming, we’re paying them for every hour that they are here. We linked intentionally with our talent acquisition team, with everything that we do, so kind of, I mentioned this before, but sort of stringing that pipeline, so if they use us, you know, come to us for their high school internships, giving them opportunities for undergraduate internships.

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Mandee Polonsky: or those apprenticeship opportunities, that we work a lot, closely with our local, community colleges, or agencies like that. And then really handing them off, and kind of along the way, we’re working on, hiring students with disabilities and working with them and training them and giving them opportunities, and also working closely with our talent acquisition team to ensure

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Mandee Polonsky: that they, can get the opportunities that they deserve, and, you know, we… we can, accommodate them. And then, you know, as Taylor was mentioning, you know, we…

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Mandee Polonsky: know that students are… when I started, I think everybody was sort of thinking in that 2-4 year college space, but that conversation has dramatically changed for us.

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Mandee Polonsky: We have a lot of students that are coming out of high school saying, I would like to start working now, for all the reasons that you mentioned. And so we’re thinking, really intentionally about the departments where they can be most successful. We actually offer first full-time employees $10,000 a year in tuition reimbursement, and so students are getting really smart and saying, why doesn’t my employer pay for me,

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Mandee Polonsky: to go to school. We actually have direct pay for a lot of schools in the area, or virtual opportunities, and so they’re taking advantage of that, and they’re learning what they like to do and what they don’t like to do. Like, come and try this on, and come and think about, you know, is this what I want to be doing? Do I really want to be a nurse? Do I really want to go to nursing school? And having those opportunities, we put them a lot in patient transport, which is an amazing first job.

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Mandee Polonsky: It’s a lot of customer service, it’s a lot of meeting patients, it’s learning about the entire hospital system, and kind of traveling all around and seeing, again, what you like to do, what you don’t like to do, and all of that is critically important information in your first job. Yeah, and I think we’re really thinking about retention, and I think that

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Mandee Polonsky: It really helps.

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Mandee Polonsky: to think about, you know, what makes people stay. I think having your employer pay for your schooling is part of that, but we actually have a really high, retention rate. We’re at seven and a half years, which is

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Mandee Polonsky: three times the rate of other healthcare employers in our service area, and four times the rate of, you know, other industries in general. So, we take that very seriously. We want people, to come and to grow and think about not just their first job, but their career.

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Mike Swigert: That is a striking retention rate, Mandy, and I think you’ve led us squarely into the solutions space for what’s working, and let’s stay with you as I go through each of our panelists to talk about some effective or promising practices.

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Mike Swigert: What you just described was a really comprehensive approach, everything from career exploration to multiple models of work-based learning, tuition reimbursement and other approaches to upskilling employees. Can you briefly walk us through a few of the key partnerships that help power that approach?

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Mandee Polonsky: Yeah, we, could not do this without our partners. I think, you know, the biggest one and the one that I mentioned who we work with most closely is our high schools. We’ve really, done a lot of,

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Mandee Polonsky: outreach to our under-resourced communities and all of our service areas to ensure that we’re reaching the students who most need the opportunities, to learn about careers. So much of… so many of our students, when they come in, want to be, you know, they say they want to be a pediatrician or a nurse, because hopefully that’s the only thing they’ve ever seen, but there are infinite things that you can do, in a healthcare setting, so making sure that they

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Mandee Polonsky: see all the tech roles, you know, all the opportunities they can do, that are clinical and non-clinical, so that’s been a big part of it. With our high schools, our local community colleges have been incredible partners in building out our apprenticeships. We’re thinking of all different models in each of our regions with them. They’re huge.

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Mandee Polonsky: In terms of partnerships. And then we have what we call our kind of innovative partners, so the, there’s some models that are, kind of earn while you learn, or, others where they’re getting apprenticeship-like opportunities, like, we have Cristo Rey here, which is an incredible model where they come and work for us one day a week, to sort of offset the cost of their tuition, to Catholic school. We have.

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Mandee Polonsky: Urban Alliance. We work with our Chicago Public Schools Career and Technical Education programming, and have for many, many years, and they’re here in the summer learning in different opportunities. And actually, I will say, a great partnership for us is actually with our competitors in the area. There’s an organization called the Chicagoland Healthcare Workforce Collaborative, so people that sit in my seat, across our other major hospitals in the

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Mandee Polonsky: I get my best ideas from them, and we talk all the time. And so we’ve learned a lot from each other, and don’t try to reinvent the wheel here, because we’re all, you know.

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Mandee Polonsky: Trying to do the same things for the same population, and we want to help each other help them.

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Mandee Polonsky: And then last but not least is our community aid-based agencies. We actually grant out about $19 million a year to community-based agencies across the region, and in turn get great partnerships, great referrals, great opportunities to have students referred, to have other candidates referred for great jobs. So we think about, you know, again, as an anchor institution, how we can do more.

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Mandee Polonsky: Or, with the opportunities that we have.

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Mike Swigert: Thanks, Mandy.

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Mike Swigert: I’ll turn it to Taylor now, and we’re on the cusp of National Apprenticeship Week, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t invite you to share a little bit of perspective on the youth apprenticeship model in particular, which Mandy described.

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Mike Swigert: How… thinking about youth apprenticeships more broadly, how does that connect young people to good jobs and career pathways? You’ve spoken about this a bit already, but maybe share an example of what that looks like when it’s designed really well.

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Taylor White: Sure, yeah, so,

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Taylor White: So, Mike, thank you for the question. I’ll say, you know, for folks, who are interested in Mandy’s… or, sorry, Mandy’s work, yes, and also Gabby’s comments, both Mandy and Gabby are connected to work that we lead at New America through the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship. It’s called PIA. I’m happy to share some links in the chat later on. But we think about youth apprenticeship as a really, high potential strategy for

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Taylor White: connecting young people and keeping young people connected to school and to work. And so, I will say, you know, we have a definition of youth apprenticeship that we’ve adopted, New America and our national partner organizations. It looks very much like registered apprenticeship, and I will say, for folks on the line who aren’t familiar with that, registered apprenticeship is sort of a formal, federally defined model of apprenticeship, and,

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Taylor White: Typically, those models are not really flexible enough to accommodate youth, and so our definition of youth apprenticeship includes many of those same core components, you know, paid work, under the supervision of a skilled employee mentor, coursework, related instruction that’s provided, and is really well and purposely aligned to the work that’s happening on the job. We, require that there be

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Taylor White: a mentorship component, that strong supervisory component, that programs culminate in an industry-recognized credential and some sort of post-secondary credit so that young people, again, have options expanded when they complete the program. When these programs are done really well, young people can usually start a program in 11th or 12th grade. They are working part-time, attending high school, and typically attending post-secondary

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Taylor White: either at a community college, a technical college, or through dual enrollment programs, TTE programs at their high schools. But the work that they’re doing on the job, for which they are being paid, is complemented and really reinforced, by learning in the classroom, right? So they’re learning on the job, they’re learning in class, and those are complementary. And then, typically, these last between one, two, three years, depending on the industry and the employer.

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Taylor White: Often they extend after high school graduation.

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Taylor White: And the idea is really that young people are having an opportunity to gain real-life work experience. They’re contributing to a local employer, and Mandy’s examples, I think, are all good ones. I wish that there were more employers that were really thoughtful and committed to it, like Northwestern Memorial Healthcare has been. I think it’s a great example. But I think my part of your question here in the sort of policy and solutions piece is, like, how do we do more of this, right? And I will say.

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Taylor White: The youth apprenticeship is a really underutilized strategy here. I think in the U.S, I should say, you often hear about apprenticeship systems like Germany and Switzerland. The interesting thing about those models is that they, you know.

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Taylor White: a lot of people are like, oh, we can’t be Switzerland, we can’t be Germany. That’s all well and good, but the really interesting thing about those models is that all of those apprentices are young people, and that apprenticeship is a true post-secondary opportunity after high school. Kids say, will I go to university, or will I go to an apprenticeship? And they’re training through apprenticeship for a really wide range of occupations, not just the sort of things that come to mind in this country.

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Taylor White: the building and construction trades, for example, but they’re training for roles at banks, for IT firms, and hospitals. And really, all across their labor markets, apprenticeship is a viable pathway for young people to exit their sort of secondary training, get the experience, the mentorship, the professional networks, and the training and credentials that they need to launch careers, and not just land those first jobs.

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Taylor White: I think, just really briefly, I would be remiss, though, if I didn’t also say that if we are thinking about expanding apprenticeship, or thinking about addressing employment, youth unemployment… youth employment, rather, I do really think it’s important that we think holistically as a country, and really think about how we rebuild the early labor market for young people. You know, a lot of what they’re struggling with today didn’t happen by accident.

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Taylor White: It’s been the result of real policy and investment choices, and I do think if we want different outcomes for young people, we have to make different choices, and that means more sustained investment in things like summer and year-round youth employment program, support for intermediaries that help employers participate in these programs, clear incentives for businesses to hire and train young workers, that work-based learning should be a core expectation of our education systems, not just, like, an enrichment activity for a small

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Taylor White: group of students who happen to land in the right high schools, and that’s going to require funding infrastructure that makes that possible. And third, I don’t want to steal thunder from any of the speakers who are coming up on the call, but I do really think that thinking about safety and job quality as a sort of design principle at the front end of all of this work, and not as an afterthought is something that we owe our young people. So, I am an advocate for these programs.

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Taylor White: usually important, but I don’t think that any of it should be done without first thinking about young people’s development, safety, and sort of long-term trajectory in mind is going to be worth it. I mean, young people are…

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Taylor White: our future as a country, and I think under-investing in them now, particularly given all of the shocks that lie ahead for our economy and labor market, is, gonna be really… is really short-sighted, and now is the time for us to be thinking bigger about how to support these, next generation of… of workers in this country.

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Mike Swigert: Thank you, Taylor. And investing in a federal program at scale like YouthBuild is an example of one lever we have to be able to do that, and have been doing for decades as a country.

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Mike Swigert: you know, if, John, work-based learning is a core feature of the YouthBuild model, has been for decades, and it’s exactly what Taylor was describing, integrated with a strong focus on

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Mike Swigert: positive youth development and education, so young people can get their high school diploma before going on to additional credentials. Can you build on what Taylor shared and talk a little bit about how that approach shapes the experiences young people have on the job?

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John Valverde: Yeah, definitely. I mean, so appreciate Mandy’s comments as well. Taylor, just a nice, nice job, like, teeing me up here, and just want to ground everyone again in just the distinction of YouthBuild.

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John Valverde: Where it’s out-of-school youth, right? So they’re not in high school, but we… we pride ourselves on trying to be a CTE-like experience for young people.

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John Valverde: And it’s fascinating to me how much talk there is now about education innovation, or what works now for young people, and how much of it is focused on experiential learning via internships, via apprenticeships, via

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John Valverde: work-based learning applications, and the irony for YouthBuild is, and I’ve referenced, YouthBuild is a federal program, so it’s legislated. The model, the elements of it, you’re required to do certain things, so I do want to note

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John Valverde: that YouthBuild is a registered pre-apprenticeship program.

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John Valverde: So, it’s a…

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John Valverde: an opportunity to be a real bridge to registered apprenticeships or apprenticeships, period. You know, that’s important to just say out loud, as an important element here, but YouthBuild has been required

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John Valverde: as a federal program to do… I’ll just, for the interest of time, I’ll just say 50% of time in the classroom, on the education theory side, 50% in

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John Valverde: A work site, hands-on training, actual, hands-on experiential learning, and there’s a service learning component where young people are contributing to the community.

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John Valverde: as part of their leadership development, which also helps them gain marketable skills for the workforce. So, I just want to nod to this idea that

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John Valverde: gaining the hands-on training and experiential learning is critical for young people’s success, and Mandy referenced career exploration. When a young person gets up on a ladder to go on a roof to do something, and they realize that they’re terrified of heights.

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John Valverde: That’s a very important data point for that university going forward, and experiential learning must be part of everything that we’re doing going forward. And then, last thing, I’ll just say to connect it a little bit to Taylor’s remarks, as a federal program, YouthBuild

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John Valverde: engages and adapts based on the administration, the priorities of the administration, and there… while I agree fully with Taylor that there has been severe underinvestment.

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John Valverde: in key areas like apprenticeship. In recent years, there’s been more investment, and I just want to say out loud to everyone here, for the first time, YouthBuild will be required

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John Valverde: to support 10% of young people being placed in apprenticeships. Not placed in college, or higher ed, or a job.

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John Valverde: or apprenticeship, 10% must be placed in apprenticeship. So, how can policy shifts with the right investment, support more young people in gaining this valuable experiential learning?

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Mike Swigert: Thank you, John. So some… some opportunities for intentional weaving together of our ecosystem, so young people can experience more seamless pathways.

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Mike Swigert: you know, you mentioned, briefly, and I’m sure you could do a whole, a whole, hour talking about YouthBuild’s focus on, on service and supporting leadership among young people.

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Mike Swigert: Jessica, I want to bring you in. Like that focus that YouthBuild has. Your work with Kosh also focuses on building leadership and advocacy among young people. You shouted out some organizers at the top of the call.

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Mike Swigert: Can you talk about the strategies you’re using to make sure teens are safe on the job, and how leadership development fits into that through programs like Teens Lead at Work that you mentioned earlier?

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Yeah, absolutely, and leadership, you know, development is a pillar of our work, for sure. So, and yes, I referenced TeensLead at Work, which, you know, we have a strong component of the program in Massachusetts.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Because, it reflects what we need more across this country, which is basically treating young people like leaders.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And not just, future workers someday. These young people, are not passive, recipients of the training that we do. They are in many times serving

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: As organizers, as educators and advocates and problem solvers in their schools and communities. An example is that we, you know, MassCOSH in particular, partnered with the Boston Education Justice Alliance and the Boston Teachers Union.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: to lead student-run safety audits in schools, looking at issues like mold, broken HVAC systems, poor ventilation, unsafe bathrooms, indoor air quality, a bunch of stuff. And I love… what I love about that example is that it really just flips the script. You know, young people are not waiting for adults to notice problems.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: But they are gathering evidence, they’re, like, raising concerns and demanding, like, healthier working conditions. So, they also train other youth on heat stress, OSHA protections, labor rights.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Wage theft, I mentioned all of this earlier, issues of mental health. So you have teenagers teaching other teenagers

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: how to stay safe, you know, know their rights and use their voice. And that really is how we have this, like, domino effect of how leadership grows. Nationally, I’m very proud to say that we have our We Rise Worker Leadership Academy, where young and emerging worker leaders from across the country

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: come together to build skills and workplace rights, hazard identification, storytelling, public speaking, campaign strategy, and turning workplace problems into collective action. That’s a whole curriculum in itself, right? Just how to do collective action. And what we want workers

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: To understand that, when something is wrong in the job, the answer is not necessarily to stay quiet.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: The answer is to use your voice, create collective power with their peers, and take action. And one of our youth, leaders, Chanel, said it, which is, you know, she… I’m gonna quote her, and she said, you know, when I watch my peers do it, I feel like I can do it myself.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: I grow more confident in myself, seeing that I’m respected, and that really, I think, captures it. When young people are respected and trusted and invested, you know, they really rise, which is why we called our program the We Rise Worker Leadership Academy.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And we also see the impact that goes, to individual, goes beyond the individual young person. I mentioned earlier that a lot of this knowledge does not stay contained. A lot of the young workers go back and they talk to family members about wage theft, heat protections, and other issues about their rights, and the young person is trained to become sometimes the first worker rights educator.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And their household is pretty, pretty amazing.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: But the real, you know, this issue is not so much the leadership programs.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: can I just fix it all? We know we have to also recognize that there is a broken system at times. Employers also have responsibilities. Young workers deserve

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Proper training on day one, safe staffing levels, fair scheduling, respectful supervision is what we’re seeing, and also just zero retaliation when they raise concerns. You know, government also has responsibility. We need strong child labor protections.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: We don’t have any heat standards, and that is becoming a growing issue in our climate, justice space. Stronger whistleblower protections.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And I have to be honest, you know, just about, like, OSHA, which is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and has jurisdiction over workers’ rights to a safe workplace, and

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And, the agency plays a vital role, but it’s completely under-resourced for years. There’s not enough inspectors for millions of workers out there, so, often enforcement happens

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: after someone already gets hurt. It’s not preventative, but it’s after someone’s been injured, someone’s been amputated, in worst-case scenarios, killed, as I shared. And we need more inspectors, stronger enforcement, we need multilingual outreach, and a very proactive prevention strategy. So.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: So really, when I think about solutions.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: I really think about empowered young workers, accountable employers, and also just, like, public enforcement, because if we want good jobs for teens.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And, you know, leadership cannot be optional. They have to be built in from the start. I also want to just close this part with, like, seconding what Taylor mentioned, which is we know that these models work.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: But many times they’re operating on limited resources while there is, you know, an enormous need, and if we are being serious about creating good jobs for young people, we really just need strong investment in youth leadership programs, worker education, in apprenticeship pathways.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And many times, these programs are underfunded, and we have to overpay for these consequences, so…

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Again, just really want to shed the light and underscore the importance of… of… that we should be scaling what works, really, not rationing it, necessarily.

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Mike Swigert: Thank you, Jessica. Lots there, in terms of calls to action, in terms of what we could invest in, in terms of how we could co-create and invite young workers in. Nothing about us without us. Your remarks resonated a lot with the work my team does at the Forum for Community Solutions.

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Mike Swigert: We’ve got about 15 minutes left, and I’m going to turn in a few minutes to some questions from the audience, but before we do that, I wanted to invite all of our panelists, if anyone else had a similar, either, maybe not so much a call to action, but a change in policy, or it could be in practice.

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Mike Swigert: That you think is really important. We’ve heard some from each of you. Taylor, you gave a, you know, a number. Jessica, you just shared, but is there anything either that you heard from one of your fellow panelists that resonated or that hasn’t come up yet, that you’d like to share so that more young people could experience quality jobs?

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Mike Swigert: like the kind of experience Gabby described.

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John Valverde: I can jump in with just a quick comment after hearing Jessica’s remarks. I’ve referenced the fact that YouthBuild is a federal program multiple times today.

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John Valverde: And it’s a $105 million a year investment in…

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John Valverde: A federal line in the budget. And as you know.

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John Valverde: $105 million a year is a drop in the bucket.

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John Valverde: is one way to think about it, but if I give you the numbers.

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John Valverde: We are very proud of the impact, the outcomes we’re achieving for 5,000 young people a year.

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John Valverde: And, as we spoke very early on, the Opportunity Youth Challenge that we have in our country is closer to 4.55 million young people aged 16 to 24 who are out of school and out of work.

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John Valverde: So, Jessica’s point, Taylor’s point, everyone’s made this point about the need for more investment.

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John Valverde: But you see a successful

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John Valverde: long-standing 34-plus-year federal program like YouthBuild, And we’re only able

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John Valverde: to make a difference with 5,000 young people. So I want to name that out loud, just to really double-click on this.

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John Valverde: need for greater investment to really move the needle here. Otherwise, we’re stuck in the same patterns of trying to level the playing field forever and ever, which all of us have been doing for a very long time. And then the last thing I just want to say is how important it is for us

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John Valverde: Working with young people to be focused on the second job.

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John Valverde: And I think we’re all really good at getting young people into that first job, and then we’re all working hard to make sure the quality of that first job is excellent.

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John Valverde: But how do we shift also to a focus on that second job? And that’s what gets us to select the kinds of employers we work with, and the partners in our ecosystem that will

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John Valverde: See, hear, understand, and value our young people.

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Mandee Polonsky: I can jump in quickly. I, totally agree. We talk about job one, job two, job three all the time. So important to think… get them in and thinking about that second job. But, just in terms of the investment piece, I… I would just add not to discount private philanthropy or philanthropy in general in the conversation, obviously. I mean, we… it’s certainly not going to fill the gaps that, the government needs to by any means, but…

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Mandee Polonsky: We’ve had the opportunity to test, you know, some of our concepts. We’ve been able to use it for, you know, launching a few of our apprenticeship opportunities, you know, sort of testing that proof of concept, for different programs. There’s a lot of interest in workforce development. I think people understand, kind of this other end of the education spectrum now is the promise of a good job and a good opportunity, so…

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Mandee Polonsky: We’ve used it, again, to prove the concept, and it can be a helpful catalyst.

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Mike Swigert: Thanks, Mandy.

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Mike Swigert: I’m gonna turn now to questions from the audience. We’ve got a bunch of good ones, I don’t think we’ll get to them all, but, Nina masked,

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Mike Swigert: from EPI says, we at EPI have been tracking numerous state-level efforts to weaken protections for high school students enrolled in youth apprenticeship and student learner programs.

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Mike Swigert: Have you all been following this trend, and what are some best practices for ensuring work-based learning programs create real pathways to good union jobs, as opposed to a cheap source of labor for employers? I think multiple folks could speak to that, maybe Jessica or Taylor.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Yeah, happy to. I mean, you know, we’ve been following this trend a bit, and it is concerning. Work-based learning can open real doors for young people, but if protections are weakened, it can also be, like, a source of cheap labor, where, you know, where the youth,

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: basically observe the risk, and employers benefit the most out of it. So, lowering labor standards is not really true innovation. I think that the strongest, program should include,

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: strong guardrails, you know, whether it’s, like, wage protection, safety standards, and again, because we’re so close to occupational health and safety, I will always mention safety standards, but hours limits.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And then just, like, real learning opportunities, right? Mentorship, skill-building credentials, and union partnerships, which have been spoken to about, labor should be at the table to help shape training standards and pathways to good jobs, which Kosh sees itself in that very specific role as well.

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: And from a national cash perspective, safety must be built in from day one, so…

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Really, I think the short answer is that career pathways must also, be safe pathways,

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Jessica E. Martinez I National COSH: Is, is, is my response.

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Taylor White: I’ll add to that real, really quickly. I mean, I agree with everything Jessica said, and we have been following this. It’s… it’s really unfortunate, because the state legislators that have done this have been really, like, sneaky about it. You sort of read it as this work-based learning bill that seems like it’s a great investment in young people, and then you get deep enough into it, and you realize, yeah, that there’s actually something in there that they’ve tucked right in, to create some interesting bedfellows.

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Taylor White: to support those bills, right? And to get different votes behind them. So, we have been tracking it. I will say, I think in a couple of instances.

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Taylor White: What’s happened is that there has been a legitimate

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Taylor White: observation from employers to say, this is why it’s difficult for us to do work-based learning, and then an over-correction in the legislation that has reduced, like, all of the reasonable and necessary protections that young people need and deserve. And so there are some things that I think, can be done from a policy perspective to address this challenge without, again, like, rolling back the basic child labor protections that young people deserve.

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Taylor White: And that, like, any civilized society should maintain and uphold. A couple of really quick things. When it comes to apprenticeship or, youth apprenticeship, having a really clear definition of what that model is and who is in charge of recognizing it in a state, I think one of the problems with youth apprenticeship, that’s occurred is that because in some states, it’s neither registered apprenticeship nor pre-apprenticeship, it’s sort of… it can become this sort of model that means whatever

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Taylor White: an employer wants it to mean, and that’s typically not,

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Taylor White: the sort of best scenario for young people. So I think, you know, we definitely support registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship models, and if a state is going to adopt their own definition of youth apprenticeship that’s separate from those models, being really, really clear about where and how those programs are sort of recognized or approved at the state level, and ensuring that that definition includes all of the same protections

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Taylor White: That a registered apprenticeship or similar would, would, confer. The other thing that I would say, is providing clarity for folks around things like

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Taylor White: insurance and liability and workers’ compensation in work-based learning programs. A lot of times, the onus for figuring that out is falling on someone who has put their hand up in a high school to serve as a work-based learning coordinator, and they know nothing about liability insurance, they don’t understand workers’ comp, and why would they, right? They’re typically like a high school teacher. I did not know any of that when I taught high school. And so, there’s a lot of, misinformation, a lot of anxiety.

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Taylor White: And a lot of, sort of.

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Taylor White: hesitance, on the part of the schools and employers from forming these relationships, and really, like, being willing to explore and understand what safe looks like, because they are, panicked about those things, and they sort of, again, they can over-correct and actually really limit opportunities for young people in some of those environments that don’t pose, any of the sort of safety risks that we might be worrying about.

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Taylor White: I would say, you know.

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Taylor White: making sure that work-based learning programs are sort of, like, official, registered, recognized, pre-apprenticeship, registered apprenticeship, making sure pre-apprenticeship programs, like the excellent youth-build programs across the country, and other, youth-serving programs, youth apprenticeships, that they are connected to a registered apprenticeship if they are not themselves a registered apprenticeship, right? The idea that we have all these pre-apprenticeship programs that actually don’t lead to a next step, to John’s point, is a problem for the system as a whole.

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Taylor White: one I know multiple administrations have been seeking to, correct for, but that’s especially… falls especially hard on youth, because they really need help with that… with that next step.

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Mike Swigert: Thanks, Taylor. We’ve got time for a couple more questions. One from William Blackmer to Mandy. As an employer, can you talk about the partnering role that municipal government could play in this type of partnership? The questioner works in municipal government and would love to work with employers in their geographical area with similar goals.

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Mandee Polonsky: Yeah, I mean, I definitely would talk to the school district. A lot of times they’re the most closely, you know, tied to the work. If they have, a career and technical education program, if there’s others, they know oftentimes the employers

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Mandee Polonsky: That work well with students, so we have often started there, obviously in Chicago, but in our suburban areas.

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Mandee Polonsky: And then also the local workforce boards often know a lot of those employers, too. Obviously, if you’re interested in healthcare in particular, there are the best hospitals in the world, and, well, second tier. And in Boston, you have some pretty great ones. I don’t know the programming there specifically, but happy to look into other colleagues there doing similar work and, you know, pipeline

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Mandee Polonsky: work in the Boston hospital systems.

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Mike Swigert: Thanks, Mandy. And there’s a few questions in here for John, which I’ll bring together. One is just broadly, how do local organizations and partners connect with youth-build sites on partnership opportunities? And then, in particular, from another

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Mike Swigert: attendee who’s in Washington and the Olympic Peninsula in a rural area, and

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Mike Swigert: Seeking guidance for how to support certified apprenticeship opportunities, particularly in a rural labor market.

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John Valverde: Yeah, in the interest of time, I would just encourage

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John Valverde: Checking out our website, we have teams at YouthBuild Global that actually support all these initiatives, especially people interested in becoming part of the YouthBuild Network. There are two ways in. You can apply for one of the Department of Labor grants, YouthBuild grants, and win a grant there, and that makes you part of the YouthBuild Network.

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John Valverde: Or you can become affiliated with YouthBuild Global through a process.

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John Valverde: and then receive all the technical assistance, supports, training that we offer network-wide. So…

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John Valverde: We do have rural focus.

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John Valverde: caucus elements, so we have teams that work specifically with rural communities, so I encourage you to check out our website, reach out to us, or reach out to me directly, and we’ll connect you with the right people.

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Mike Swigert: Thank you, John.

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Mike Swigert: Two minutes left, maybe a final question for Taylor. Any particular innovative examples of districts using approaches to support seniors transitioning out of high school and career exposure that you want to name for folks to check out after the call?

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Taylor White: Sure, I can name a couple quickly. I mean, Mandy, I think you work with Chicago Public Schools, CPS. I think they’ve invested a lot in thinking about different work-based learning and capstone experiences for students.

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Taylor White: I would say just outside of Chicago, there’s a district called, High School District 214 that has made it their mission to ensure that every young person in the high school district has access to a work-based learning experience, and some of those, are, apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, internships, job shadows, they have a really wide range and do some really interesting stuff with, employers sort of pushing projects into classrooms, for students who can’t leave the site to

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Taylor White: for one reason or another to go do those sort of on-site, work-based learning experiences. Gosh, I would say that New York City has done a number of the, invested in a number of really interesting pathways and work-based learning programs.

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Taylor White: I’m trying to think of some other, some other, like, smaller districts that might be another good example.

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Taylor White: Gosh, Gabby comes from Charleston, South Carolina. The Charleston Regional Youth Apprenticeships Program is a good one to look at, and those are… that’s an interesting regional model, anchored by a community college and a sort of sector partnership of businesses across a range of industries. I would say that there are, a number of interesting models in the P-TECH models that we see. Texas is a good place to look for those.

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Taylor White: and…

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Taylor White: New York State as well, and those are just sort of school-based models that provide, really good, work-based learning opportunity. And I think some of them are still sort of working through what it means, to John’s point, to get a first job and a second job for those students, but I think in terms of a model that a school district can adopt, and a sort of an innovative approach to doing this kind of work, those are a good example.

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Mike Swigert: Thank you, Taylor, and thank you to Jessica, John, Mandy, and Taylor for sharing your wisdom, your leadership, and the many connections, and partners and voices that you brought into this conversation.

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Mike Swigert: We’re at time. Matt, I turn it to you to close us out.

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Matt Helmer: Yeah, thanks, Mike, and just echoing Mike, you know, thanks to Gabby for really setting the stage for today’s conversation and her wonderful remarks, and likewise to John, Taylor, Jessica, and Mandy for sharing their expertise and perspective, and just a great conversation. I wish we had a bit more time.

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Matt Helmer: And thank you to you, Mike, for moderating, and to your colleagues at the Forum for Community Solutions for collaborating on this, and for all the great work we do.

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Matt Helmer: Thanks to my team, Tony, Francis, Nora, Maureen, Sien, Colleen, probably leaving off a few names there, but…

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Matt Helmer: A lot of people work on these events, and they always pull it off nicely. I’d be appreciative to have good people around me.

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Matt Helmer: Please join us for our next event. This is going to be on May 7th, Investing in Job Quality in the South. It’s the final part of a four-part series we’re doing with our Job Quality Fellows. So we’ll hope to see you there, and thanks again for joining us today. Take care.Resources

Blogs and Publications 

Downs, Lancy, et al. “Clearing the Lane for Apprenticeship.” New America. March 25, 2026. 

Downs, Lancy. “What Does “Youth Apprenticeship” Mean? The Answer, According to Each State.” New America. November 21, 2024. 

Garcia, John-David, et al. “Connecting Opportunity Youth and  Employers Through Work-Based Learning.” YouthBuild. November 2020. 

“Mandee Polonsky of Northwestern Medicine: Championing Partnerships in Chicagoland.” Origami Works Foundation. March 6, 2024.

“Partner Insights Show Way to Scale Youth Outcomes.” Aspen Institute. January 27, 2025. 

Simon, Alexandra, and Taylor White. “From Pilots to Policy: States Take Steps to Build Systems for Scaling Youth Apprenticeship.” New America. October 25, 2025. 

Swigert, Mike. “Healing and Intergenerational Change: Creating Inclusive Communities for Opportunity Youth.” Aspen Institute. June 13, 2023. 

Valverde, John. “What Prison Taught Me About Leading in Crisis.” Chronicle of Philanthropy. March 16, 2026. 

Additional resources 

Events | National Council for Occupational Safety and Health 

Fired Up! Workers for Heat Justice

National Council for Occupational Safety and Health

Postsecondary Pathways for Youth – New America 

Stories from the Field – YouthBuild The Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions

A young person’s first job is a rite of passage in the US — an opportunity to build skills, save for college, support the family business, or support themselves and their loved ones. And after decades of decline, more teens are working today than at any point since 2008. Yet the labor market often fails them. Many face low wages, unpredictable or burdensome schedules that interfere with school, unsafe or discriminatory conditions, and limited opportunities for growth, belonging, and purpose. 

At the same time, innovative approaches like apprenticeship, training on safety and worker rights, and purposeful support and mentorship show what’s possible when we get it right: jobs that build confidence, provide fair compensation, and open doors to future careers. As we prepare the next generation of workers and community members, the question is clear: what would it take to make every teen’s first job a good job and ensure the labor market delivers for young workers? 

This event — hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and the Forum for Community Solutions on April 21, 2026 — explores how to create meaningful work opportunities for teens while protecting them from dangerous and exploitative conditions. 

Our conversation includes opening remarks from Matt Helmer (Aspen Institute) and Gabby Smith (Plate it Forward), followed by a panel discussion with Jessica Martinez (National Council for Occupational Safety and Health), Mandee Polonsky (Northwestern Memorial HealthCare), John Valverde (YouthBuild Global), Taylor White (New America), and moderator Mike Swigert (Aspen Institute).

This event is part of our Opportunity in America series. It is also the second in our two-part miniseries, “Exploring the Past, Present, and Future of Youth at Work.”

For highlights from this discussion, subscribe to our YouTube channel. Or subscribe to our podcast to listen on the go.

For part one, “Backsliding on Child Protections: The Return of Child Labor in the US,” click here.

Blogs and Publications 

Downs, Lancy, et al. “Clearing the Lane for Apprenticeship.” New America. March 25, 2026. 

Downs, Lancy. “What Does “Youth Apprenticeship” Mean? The Answer, According to Each State.” New America. November 21, 2024. 

Garcia, John-David, et al. “Connecting Opportunity Youth and  Employers Through Work-Based Learning.” YouthBuild. November 2020. 

“Mandee Polonsky of Northwestern Medicine: Championing Partnerships in Chicagoland.” Origami Works Foundation. March 6, 2024.

“Partner Insights Show Way to Scale Youth Outcomes.” Aspen Institute. January 27, 2025. 

Simon, Alexandra, and Taylor White. “From Pilots to Policy: States Take Steps to Build Systems for Scaling Youth Apprenticeship.” New America. October 25, 2025. 

Swigert, Mike. “Healing and Intergenerational Change: Creating Inclusive Communities for Opportunity Youth.” Aspen Institute. June 13, 2023. 

Valverde, John. “What Prison Taught Me About Leading in Crisis.” Chronicle of Philanthropy. March 16, 2026. 

Additional resources 

Events | National Council for Occupational Safety and Health 

Fired Up! Workers for Heat Justice

National Council for Occupational Safety and Health

Postsecondary Pathways for Youth – New America 

Stories from the Field – YouthBuild The Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions