Bipartisan Youth Workforce Readiness Act reintroduced in the Senate

This month,  a bipartisan group of Senate co-sponsors reintroduced the Youth Workforce Readiness Act (S 454). The legislation, first introduced in 2019, would create a competitive grant program through the Department of Labor to support collaborations of national youth-serving out-of-school time organizations, schools, businesses and other partners in establishing workforce readiness programming for youth ages 6-18.

For youth 15 and older, grant funds could be used for employment-related activities such as work-based learning, occupational skill training, pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs, summer employment, internships and job-shadowing, related educational components, and supporting youth in their transition to postsecondary education and training.

For all eligible youth, ages six and up, programming could include career exposure, awareness and exploration, career assessments, leadership development opportunities including positive civic and social behaviors, financial literacy education, entrepreneurial skills training, guidance and counseling, mentoring and other supportive services.

The bill would also re-establish youth councils through local workforce boards to represent the specific interests of youth and help address youth workforce development and youth workforce readiness. The youth council members would be those with special interest and expertise in youth workforce as well as labor and education representatives. Members may include current and former youth participants, community representatives, parents of youth engaged in programming, and representatives of vulnerable populations, such as foster youth, minority youth and youth with disabilities, and representatives of youth service agencies among others.

Co-sponsors currently include Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). The bill is awaiting introduction in the House for this 118^th Congress. When introduced in 2021 in the last Congress, the House bill had 58 co-sponsors and a $100M authorization level, while the Senate bill referred to “such sums as may be necessary.”

Research, such as that from the Center for American Progress, shows student ideas about certain careers tend to form at age 10 and remain unchanged as they enter into high school. As conversations nationally converge around the impacts and opportunities of apprenticeships and career connected learning, these types of proposals are critical for building partnerships to engage students early and intentionally with career exposure and support them and connect them with opportunities and mentors as their interests continue to develop.