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 Butler President Human Investment Institute And Consultant, U.S. Department of Labor December, 2008

The Economy and Population Change Drives Youth Employment Policy. And then, there’s politics  1930’sThe Great Depression, the CCC, and the National Youth Administration  1940’sWorld War as youth employment policy  1950’szzzzzzzzzzzzzz  1960’s46+16, waking up to poverty and equal opportunity, fire insurance, job corps

History of the (youth employment) world (continued)  1970’sThe Awakening : what works, for whom? (meanwhile, more fire insurance)  1980’sThe 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