Adulting and Career Exploration

An Ohio-based experiment exposes young people to both campus living and career paths as they work and pay the bills. Also, the latest on workforce education and AI provisions in the Republican domestic policy bill, and a new experiment with a social capital–focused AI coach. (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Subscribe here.)

Bridging the Gap Between School and Careers

Junior Achievement has stepped into the blur space between high school and what comes next. The nonprofit’s 5th Year program gives young adults a structured year to live on a college campus and explore careers, gain work experience, and build life skills.

An initial cohort of 24 students graduated this May from a trial run of the program based in Toledo, Ohio. Each participant held two internships—one in the fall and one in the spring. They also visited 60 employers across the metro area. Represented industries included law, engineering, construction, accounting, healthcare, higher education, and nonprofit organizations.

The program is focused on helping students find a clear path forward, by guiding them to match their interests and abilities with in-demand careers and local job opportunities.

High school graduates are expected to know what they’re going to do with the rest of their lives after they walk across the stage to get their diploma, says Jim Pollock, the president of Junior Achievement of Northwestern Ohio. Many aren’t ready to commit to answering to that question, which isn’t getting any easier amid a rapidly evolving job market.

“We’re giving them the space to just pause,” he says. “To discover, to explore, to grow personally, to grow socially.”

In each of their site visits, the students saw the full range of possible careers. At a hospital, for example, that meant job shadowing with security and maintenance workers as well as doctors and nurses. 

“How do we bridge that gap and connect students with companies in a meaningful way?” asks Pollock.

The Details: Students take on no debt during their 5th Year experience. Instead, they learn how to live on less than they make while paying rent, shopping, and investing.

Participants were paid $15 per hour for internships in their field of interest, where they worked 24 hours a week. Those wages helped cover the cost of living, including shared apartments at Lourdes University, a private nonprofit located in a Toledo suburb.

The rest of the 8 a.m.–5 p.m. days students commit to for 10 months is filled with training on finances, durable skills, and career readiness, as well as the job shadowing. Adulting skills are a big part of the process as well, including how to cook, do laundry, and deal with owning a car.

“They get to be independent and grow, without the weight of the world on their shoulders,” Pollock says.

Participating students came from a wide range of backgrounds and levels of academic preparation. Of the initial cohort, 13 have enrolled in a college. Some weren’t ready to commit to attending college before the experience, including one student who later accepted an offer from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Pollock says he underestimated buy-in the program got from K-12 schools and educators. And interest from local employers was heavy. “We need talent. We need it tomorrow,” he says.

Junior Achievement is continuing to develop the program’s corporate engagement as it moves into a second year. Adding badges and certifications for career-connected learning is part of the plan going forward. And the group is seeking to expand and export the model, with a likely first move to other campuses around the region.

Feedback from parents of participants, employers, and the broader community has been overwhelmingly positive, says Pollock.

The Kicker: Pollock says he often hears, “Why didn’t this exist when I was a kid?”

Update From Washington

The sprawling federal domestic policy bill is moving toward a final vote and likely passage this morning in the House of Representatives. The version passed by the Senate on Tuesday features several provisions that are relevant to workforce education. They include:

• Workforce Pell. After being nixed last week by the Senate parliamentarian, a modified version of the proposal to open up federal Pell Grants to short-term programs (completed in eight to 15 weeks) made it into the final bill. This version was almost identical to the previous one, according to the American Association of Community Colleges, but it no longer includes unaccredited providers as eligible program participants.

• Loan accountability. The Senate bill aims to hold college programs accountable for poor workforce outcomes. Undergraduate degree programs would become ineligible for the federal loan program if, in two out of three years, their working graduates earned less than the median earnings of 25- to 34-year-old workers with only high school diplomas. Undergraduate certificate programs are not included in the accountability measure, and noncompleters do not factor into the earnings calculations. Left-leaning think tanks like New America had pushed for the inclusion of undergraduate certificates.

• AI regulation. Over the last month, Republican support splintered and eventually fell apart for an amendment that would have prohibited the enforcement of state AI laws for a decade. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was the primary congressional champion of the amendment, which was backed by tech firms and investors. Cruz tried to modify and salvage the moratorium. But a wide range of concerns, including the ability of states and localities to make decisions about AI’s implications for the workforce and education, led to a 99-to-1 vote against the amendment.

• Clean energy workforce. The bill would dismantle a wide range of tax credits for EV, solar, and wind projects, many of which are spurring the creation of thousands of jobs, mostly in red states.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is predicting a renaissance in advanced manufacturing jobs, including training for 5M workers in that industry. An Education Department official last month exhorted workforce and education pros to “stand with us,” promising that substantial policies are in the works. But beyond workforce Pell—an estimated $300M expenditure over a decade—no substantial new federal funding streams for education and workforce training have emerged amid proposed budget slashing and eliminated grants.

Relationship-Building Skills

A new AI career coach focused on social capital aims to help users build relationships and reach out to casual acquaintances—weak ties—across their networks. Dubbed Goldi, the chat bot from Climb Together is designed for jobseekers in their 20s and 30s but can be used by high school students as well.

“We are embedding her into college courses and throughout the workforce ecosystem,” says Nitzan Pelman, Climb Together’s CEO and founder. “She’s a bot that doesn’t want you to become addicted to her—she wants you to interact with people IRL.”

LaGuardia Community College and Ohio’s Sinclair Community College are experimenting with Goldi, Pelman says, as are the University of Maine at Augusta, National Louis University, COOP Careers, and Merit America. Goldi also is among a slate of organizations backed by the Google.org Accelerator on generative AI. Jobseekers on the SkillUp Coalition platform will be able to access the tool through that project.

Open Tabs

Knowledge Economy
Many midlevel workers across sectors such as finance, business services, government, and healthcare are vulnerable to deskilling, job loss, and forced transitions as AI platforms absorb tasks once handled by humans, according to an analysis by Brent Orrell at the American Enterprise Institute. To respond to these looming shifts, better data systems are needed, as are policy solutions that prioritize worker agency rather than centralized control.

Job Cuts
Private employers in the U.S. unexpectedly shed 33K jobs in June, according to ADP. Job loss across professional and business services, education, and health services led the decline. ADP’s analysis cited a hesitancy to hire and a reluctance to replace departing workers. It was the first pullback since 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported, bucking the expected growth of 100K positions. The Labor Department’s monthly jobs report drops today.

Frozen Funds
The Trump administration is holding back nearly $6.8B in federal funding for K-12 schools it was scheduled to dole out on July 1, reports Mark Lieberman for Education Week. The funding is earmarked for English learners, migrant students, professional development, and more. The U.S. Department of Labor also told state agencies on Monday that it was withholding congressionally appropriated grant funding for adult basic education, prior to completing a review.

Registered Apprenticeship
The Labor Department announced $84M in state-focused grants to expand the capacity of registered apprenticeship programs across the nation. The third installment of the formula funding created during the Biden administration seeks to advance earn-and-learn opportunities in both traditional and emerging industries, including AI and advanced manufacturing. The department said 134K new apprentices have registered since the beginning of this Trump administration.

Skills Analysis
The University of Phoenix and Jobs for the Future are testing an AI-powered skills analysis and upskilling strategy. The project seeks to uncover how skills-focused tools enabled by AI can drive better employee development, retention, and mobility, while also addressing algorithmic transparency and data accountability. The university collaborates with 2K+ employers through its skills work, which includes customized workforce assessments.

Semiconductor Workforce
A full decoupling of the U.S. electronics supply from the rest of the world is not economically feasible, according to the Global Electronics Association—the newly renamed IPC. Calls for domestic production or reshoring of semiconductor production often underestimate investments required to replicate mature supply chains, the group says, including years of spending on workforce development. Electronics also now drive one-fifth of world trade.

Full Participation
Colorado’s future economic competitiveness, healthcare systems, innovation, and quality of life depend on its ability to prepare students for tomorrow’s high-skill economy, Joe Garcia, who retired this week as chancellor of the Colorado Community College System, writes for The Colorado Sun. “Without full participation of our Latino students, first-generation students, and historically underrepresented students, Colorado simply cannot thrive.”

Job Moves
Geoffrey Roche has been hired by Risepoint, an ed-tech company, as senior vice president of healthcare solutions. Roche previously was director of workforce development for the North American business of Siemens Healthineers.

Thanks for reading. To support our work, donate here. And if this newsletter was forwarded to you, subscribe here. —PF