Youth Employment in North America Seminar -- Mexico City December 4, 2008

A Brief but Quirky Historical Overview of Youth Employment

Policies and Programs in the United States and Some Predictions for the

(near) Future

Dr. Erik Payne ButlerPresident

Human Investment InstituteAnd Consultant, U.S. Department of Labor

December, 2008

The Economy and Population Change Drives Youth Employment Policy. And

then, there’s politics

1930’s The Great Depression, the CCC, and the National Youth Administration

1940’s World War as youth employment policy

1950’s zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

1960’s 46+16, waking up to poverty and equal opportunity, fire insurance, job corps

History of the (youth employment) world (continued)

1970’s The Awakening : what works, for whom? (meanwhile, more fire insurance)

1980’s The dark ages, with a few monasteries

1990’s “Maybe nothing works, but let’s keep trying”

And now, suddenly, here’s The New Millennium

So What Have We Learned?

Can You Read?

Did You Graduate?

Have You Worked?

Can You Read?

Literacy and Numeracy Workplace education The cognitive skills tie between education and

work Cognitive skills and poverty Programmatic implications: teaching literacy

through work, work through literacy

Did You Graduate?

Income correlation to attainment The rising importance of credentialing The high stakes testing movement Programmatic implications: multiple pathways,

alternative education, concurrent work and schooling, small learning communities, compacts

Have You Worked?

The old/new ‘3 R’s: Resume, references, reliability (and sometimes relations)

The “soft skills” movement “Work readiness” certification Job creation, work experience, and the pre-

occupation with public-private partnerships Programmatic implications: work-based

learning, occupational pathways,

Prospects: what we’re seeing and likely to see in US youth employment

policy and practice

New attention to public service jobs and job creation, maybe summer jobs again

Otherwise, not much new money until recession resolves, massive deficits reversed

Continued emphasis on alternative education as preparation for work

Pathways, pathways, pathways Focus on targeted populations

school dropouts Youthful offenders, gang members, children of incarcerated

parents Foster youth Disabled youth