 I'm Ann Marie Slaughter, the CEO of New America and I could not be happier to welcome you to the PIA Youth Apprenticeship Summit of 2020. The work advancing youth apprenticeship that PIA does is really at the core of the kind of work that New America strives to do in the world. And it's also a model for that kind of work, as I will talk about. Let me start by telling you a little more about New America itself. We have a grand vision to renew the promise of America by holding the country to our highest ideals in an age of rapid technological and social change. I honestly think that mission has never been more important. We talk about renewing the promise of America. That means the basic commitment that all human beings are created equal and have an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But the idea of renew also means looking backwards and forwards at the same time, taking the best of the past while reckoning and rejecting the worst. So interestingly, we think about apprenticeship. I was reading recently a new book by Jamie Marisotis, who is the president and CEO of the Lumina Foundation. Lumina has supported New America for a long time. He has a new book called Human Work and I want to just read you a couple of sentences from it. This is Jamie talking. He says, I am struck that many of the innovative solutions we will turn to in meeting the challenges we face now look like throwbacks to an earlier your age, apprenticeships, demonstrated mastery, even guilds. Likewise, the kind of human work, the kind of life that human work allows us to lead sounds curiously old fashioned. It's a life of meaningful work, continuous learning and service to the community. That is striking to me because apprenticeship is an old fashioned idea. And yet we need to renew it to make it modern to make it equal to make it relevant to the life we lead now. But I start with this idea that really apprenticeship and renewing the concept of apprenticeship is at the heart of what New America is about. It's also a really big idea. It's the kind of idea that can help us rewire our entire labor market. And that's the scale of idea we need right now. So a little more about PIA itself, many of you know, but not all of you. We started the partnership to advance youth apprenticeship two years ago in 2018. And in the intervening two years, we've given nine grants to place based public private partnerships, those grants total more than 1.5 million. But those that 1.5 million are investments in communities. At the same time, we launched the PIA network, which is a virtual learning community that connects over 45 place based partnerships across the United States. And this is actually dear to my heart as a professor and a scholar, I've been a network theorist for over 20 years, and watching the PIA network take shape has been a wonderful example of looking at something in practice that I've long studied in theory. And PIA network total enrolls over 2000 youth apprentices, which is a is a lot for two years. And PIA network members work with over 600 employers. What's important here is that it's 600 employers, not just in the industries that many people associate with apprentices like the building trades. These industries include healthcare, tech, manufacturing, transportation, education and finance. Indeed, I remember talking to a PIA member who was talking to me about apprenticeships in insurance benefits and insurance adjusting an area where you wouldn't normally expect to see an apprentice. So that is what PIA has really managed to do in its first two years. It is it is supporting youth apprenticeship, learning from that support, creating a community of practice, and then has laid the groundwork for this next phase. When PIA was created, however, we could not have imagined just how important working with youth would be. Through this year of the pandemic, we are seeing young people being dramatically affected. Young people who are in school, many of whom, particularly those who don't have access to fast broadband are at risk of you losing a full year of education. But also, of course, those young people who are looking for jobs are now looking for jobs in an economic climate where unemployment rivals the Great Depression, not the Great Recession, but the Great Depression. That is particularly true in communities of color. Indeed, we risk having a lost generation, which is a term that was originally applied in Europe after World War One and World War Two and the number of deaths that we saw across youth. Here it is much more blighting the prospects of an entire generation. So youth apprenticeship has a critically important role to play. Youth apprenticeship allows us to build a far more equitable recovery. It allows us to tie education and employment together. It's a near term solution for a great many young people, but with long term benefits, not only for the apprentices themselves, but for the employers and the communities who are now supporting that next generation. Youth apprenticeship is also the right mobility strategy for the long run. Longer term education and training programs are connected to good jobs are essential for longer term economic recovery. Youth apprenticeship ensures that students do not have to choose between their education and a job. They don't have to choose between taking on debt and a job. And they remain engaged in a program that then will support their longer term economic development, preparing them for full blown careers. The human connection part of this the connection between a young person and teachers and a young person and mentors in their apprentice capacity. That connection is as important as the income they earn and the knowledge they learn. Connection is what weaves a community fabric, but connections are also a key part of economic mobility. We just think about our own children and how often we call a friend to make the connection that will land that internship or that job. Youth apprenticeships provide that connection for many youth who would not otherwise have them. Indeed, compared to peers countries with youth apprenticeship systems in place see youth employment recover far faster from economic downturns. And they don't experience the same lasting and destabilizing effects that the youth employment has on both society and politics. So this is the moment to expand youth apprenticeship, and this summit is all about launching pious phase two. As we move into our second phase, we see all sorts of opportunities for innovation that could then pay long term dividends for the field of youth apprenticeship more broadly. Over this next two years will be supporting community partners in responding to the pandemic in creating equitable recovery and in responding to rapidly changing conditions of education. We are virtual this year because of the pandemic, but the disruption in habits, long entrenched habits that this pandemic has caused opens up opportunities for hybrid learning of all different kinds and lots of innovation. And we will be working with communities to accelerate the programs that we've already put in place and to create new ones. I have to close by just talking about again, how pile works in ways that I think are a model for new America's work new America, the organization, but also how we are all going to work to build a new America. In the first place pie combines ground up ideas. We recognize that many of the most important innovations we make in this country are not coming out of Washington or Silicon Valley, or any other sort of big, wealthy hub. Those innovations are often coming from people on the ground who are working directly with youth or with any other population and figuring out solutions to problems. At the same time we're looking ground up and we're looking across, we're creating a learning community that allows those people in many communities to share what they've learned. But we're not leaving out government, either state government or federal government. We recognize the critical importance of government to finally get to scale. So pie works at all three levels ground up across and then bringing in the governmental plane in a way that again I think is a model for what Tara McGinnis and I've called the new practice of public problem solving. And finally pie works with partners. New America nor any other organization like New America is ever going to achieve scale just on its own. The way forward is through networks and coalitions and alliances and partnerships, where we each bring what we have to the table, and we recognize that we have a common goal. And so with that I'd like to close just by recognizing and thanking our partners and our supporters. Our national partners are advanced CTE career wise Colorado Charleston regional youth apprenticeship program. Partnership, the Education Strategy Group, JFF, the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity, the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, and the National Governors Association. And of course let me also thank our all important funders who are also our partners. We are funded by the Annie E Casey Foundation, Balmer Group, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Joyce Foundation, JP Morgan Chase and Company, the Siemens Foundation, and our two newest funders and we welcome you to our group. The Ralph C Wilson Jr Foundation, and the Schmidt Foundation. We are so thrilled to have you all. So to everyone. Again, let me welcome you to this summit. You are in for a real treat. And you could not be doing more important work. My name is Taylor White, and I am the national director of the partnership to advance the apprenticeship at New America. I've had the pleasure of being part of our small but mighty team PIA at New America since we launched this initiative two years ago this month. First, let me echo and Maurice thanks to you for joining us today. The summit is an opportunity for us to celebrate the two year milestone of PIA's work. It's our birthday and some in a manner of speaking. It's a chance to recognize and reflect on the work that partners across the country are doing to advance and strengthen the field of apprenticeship. And it's an opportunity for us to expand the reach and ambitions of PIA with you as we head into the next two year phase of the initiative. As Ann Marie said, PIA has always been envisioned as a multi year initiative. But we could not have predicted how much the world would change for ourselves for our economy, and most especially for young adults when we launched in 2018. Just eight months ago, those in their early 20s were poised to enter into a workforce with record low unemployment during one of the longest economic expansions in US history. In April, the unemployment rate for those aged 16 to 24 rocketed to nearly 27%. And though it's since fallen back down to about 18 and a half nationally, significant racial gaps remain and show no signs of abating. As of July, the unemployment rate for black and Hispanic youth remained well above 20%. At the same time, enrollment in high schools and colleges is down considerably as students priorities have shifted, or they found themselves unwilling or unable to take classes online. In a recent survey of future and current college students, a third of high school seniors reported that COVID has made them less likely to enroll in college. And again, the disparities here are significant. Research released by the US Census Bureau in August revealed that students from families with incomes under $75,000 were nearly twice as likely to report they had canceled all plans to take classes this fall than students from families earning more than $100,000 annually. Nationally, the number of students filling out FAFSA forms which students have to complete to apply for federal financial aid has declined by more than 100,000 students with the largest drops observed in rural high schools and those high schools serving large numbers of low income students. Perhaps most distressingly, as both the public health crisis and our anemic jog market continue, more and more young people are voicing significant doubts about the value of post-secondary education. In a recent survey of future and current college students led by New America and third way, 70% of high school students said that college is not worth the cost to students anymore. And while the collective faith, our collective faith and the link between education and economic mobility had begun to waver in this country long before coronavirus arrived. Current trend suggests that the recovery will favor workers with post-secondary education and experience and let the jobs that come back online and continue to grow in the future will too. Already, we see mounting evidence that those with bachelor's degrees and other post-secondary credentials are faring better today in our labor market than those without. To compete for good jobs in their recovery and build careers over the long term, young adults will need post-secondary options that provide both work experience and structured low cost pathways to degrees. Youth apprenticeship is a solution uniquely positioned to deliver on both. If you are one of the more than 900 people who has signed up to join us at the summit this week, chances are you agree with this statement, or at least at the very least. You're here because you're seeking a strategy to create more affordable, equitable and reliable pathways from high school to good jobs and college degrees, and you have an inkling that youth apprenticeship might just be it. And if you are in that second category, let me tell you, you have come to the right place. But before we go too far into this opening session, can we just pause for a moment? We'd love to get a sense of who you are and what it is you're here to learn. In just a moment, a poll will flash on your screen and we'd love for you to take just a moment to complete it for us. So, let us know who's here. Are you a K-12 or post-secondary educator or administrator? Do you work in the field of economic or workforce development? Are you here representing a business, a trade association, an industry coalition, or any other group representing the interests of employers? Are you a policymaker? Do you work in government? Are you here because you're an advocate or a researcher? Or do you work in fundraising or philanthropy and have interest in learning more about how to support youth apprenticeship? Let us know. Alright, let's see who's who. Alright, so we have a lot of workforce and economic development folks on the line with us today. A lot of educators, plenty of folks representing policy and government, and business and trade associations as well. Alright, so it's a good mix and I see that we have about 300 people who have signed on. We expect to have good numbers throughout the next three days, but exciting to see this diversity of participants here with us today. We have one other poll we'd love for you to answer for us before we fully get started with this morning's presentation. Could you please just take one second to tell us what it is you're most hopeful that you'll have a chance to learn this week at the summit. If you're new to youth apprenticeship and you're curious to just dip your toes in and learn how it works and what its potential might be, let us know. If you've worked with us before or are familiar with PIA and youth apprenticeship but you're interested in getting a little bit more knowledge about what it's going to take to launch or grow programs in your community, tell us that too. And if you feel like you are an old hat here, you know youth apprenticeship and you are just here to rub elbows with other folks that you've worked with in the past, or even perhaps to share some of your expertise and knowledge, let us know. Alright, so we have a good representation from folks who are familiar with and working with youth apprenticeship, as well as about half of the folks on the line who are a little bit newer to the work, and are here to kind of learn, learn what's happening learn about the potential of the strategy. For those of you who are new, let me first welcome and introduce you to PIA the partnership to advance the apprenticeship. I'm going to spend a little bit of time just giving you an overview of who we are and what we do, and also talk a bit about how youth apprenticeship is uniquely positioned to provide pathways to students that connect them to post secondary opportunities connect them to work experience and can help our communities move towards a more inclusive economic rule in the months ahead. So as we mentioned in her remarks, PIA is a multi year multi stakeholder initiative that launched in 2018 with the goal of connecting expanding and strengthening the field of apprenticeship. We support states and cities in their efforts to expand the apprenticeship opportunities for high school age youth. And we believe firmly that the system, sorry, we believe firmly that youth apprenticeship can transform how the nation's education system prepares young people for careers and launching them into launches them into a successful future. And we believe firmly that this system is long overdue for reinvention. Though college degree is now more important than ever to guarantee financial security is also less of the sure bet students lack affordable post secondary options and many young graduates find a degree alone cannot guarantee a well paying job with opportunities for advancement. Even as high school graduation and college matriculation have ticked up steadily since the beginning of the early 2000s income inequality and the racial wealth gap and continue to grow, even before the effects of COVID-19 exacerbated both. At the same time employers have sought ways to build more nimble more sustainable talent pipelines into fields like it healthcare business services and advanced manufacturing. But far too often they're missing opportunities to tap into a rising generation of young diverse talent, much of which exists on tapped in their own communities. Youth apprenticeship is a strategy that better connects the 21st century learning needs of youth with the talent needs of industry. And by doing so youth apprenticeship can promote a more inclusive economy, while also meeting the fast changing needs of American business. This was true two years ago, and it remains true today. But despite this promise youth apprenticeship remains an underutilized education and training strategy in the US. To help develop the field and advance its transformative potential hi has for the last two years pursue three core objectives, we work to improve public awareness and understanding about high quality apprenticeship and its potential as a strategy for promoting promoting a more inclusive economy. And our work generates and disseminates better information about the conditions and strategies that make you the apprenticeship program successful and sustainable over time. Lastly, PIA has provided direct support to local regional and state efforts to grow and improve youth apprenticeship opportunities. In PIA's first phase, our chief goal has been to lay a foundation for the dynamic growing in field of youth apprenticeship through research resources and profiles of innovative programs and practices we've sought to provide greater clarity to field about what youth apprenticeship is, and could be, and what it will take to scale the model to reach its full potential. Through the PIA network and events like this one we've sought to better connect the partnerships and innovators launching and leading youth apprenticeship programs across the US to exchange promising practices and support the growth of an identity for the field. And we've provided as I said direct support in the form of grants and technical assistance to fuel the work of some of the nation's most unique and promising youth apprenticeship programs, many of whom you'll have an opportunity to hear from over the next few days. But New America does not and could not do this work alone. We are, as our names would suggest, truly a partnership and our partnership has many layers. First and foremost, we have crucial partners, the community of funders that support this work. Anne Marie has listed them off and thanked them again, but please let me just once again say how grateful we are for the support and partnership and ongoing collaboration with the organizations and foundations on this slide. We also rely on the expertise, experience and collective networks of the PIA national partners. Again, many of whom you'll hear from over the course of the summit. Anne Marie has already thanked this group of organizations as well but I would be remiss if I did not once again recognize our partners for their contributions, leadership, good humor and patience over the past two years, we're fortunate to have you all as partners in our work. As a partnership, we exist to support and connect the work of other partnerships, namely the dynamic public private partnerships around the country that are advancing strategies to develop, implement and scale youth apprenticeship programs to create pathways to opportunity in a whole and a range of industries including advanced manufacturing, arts, IT, business and financial services, education and a host of other industries. Just quickly up here to see a slide with the PIA network in it, we'll come back to this and talk more deeply, but know that a big part of our work is supporting the work of partnerships in each of the locations you see represented by dots here on this slide. Within each of those locations, even at the most local level use apprenticeship programs rely on partnership. You're getting catching the theme here right partnership on partnership on partnership. But by design use apprenticeship programs rely on the close collaboration of secondary and post secondary education systems, employers and other stakeholders that provide critical coordinating and support functions, not only to the apprentices, but to the various organizations that must work together to share the work, share the risk and deliver values for everyone involved. Well, there is truth to the adage that apprenticeship must be industry driven to succeed these programs thrive and grow when they're integrated within broader education and workforce systems and can leverage the expertise and resources within them. This alignment matters not only for quality but for the growth and sustainability of these programs over time. And as it added benefit and of great interest to us at new America. These programs can help strengthen the systems themselves by promoting greater efficiency and coherence between them. But do not let this neat triangle for you. Youth apprenticeship partnerships are really so straightforward. In fact, I would venture to guess that across the 49 sites that we support through the pie network. No two partnerships look alike and I can verify this for you because some of our team at new America once tried to map them and it was tricky work. What the partnerships and pie network do have in common, however, is a shared vision for what youth apprenticeship is. When PIA launched in 2018, we felt it was crucially important for us to develop a clear common definition of youth apprenticeship to provide direction and clarity to the field. If we're going to expand it, we're going to study it, we're going to understand how it thrives, we needed to understand what it was. And so two years ago this month after significant consultation with our partners and leading practitioners around the country, PIA released the first ever national definition of youth apprenticeship. And it's up here on the slide. Some of the text is a little small so I'm just going to truncate it a little bit for you. Youth apprenticeship programs are structured work-based learning programs that are designed to start when an apprentice is in high school. High quality youth apprenticeship programs typically include four core elements. Those of you who've seen the slide before will know that those four core elements are missing from the slide and so what we're going to do is pull up another quick poll to fill them in. Let us know which of the items on your screen right now are the four components of a high quality youth apprenticeship program. We'll see how you do. I don't have my jeopardy music queued up, but we'll give you 30 seconds to give an answer here and see what we get. All right, do we have the results of that poll just yet? Here we go. Well, many of you did very well on this test. All of the above. I don't know if you all knew that or you're all good guessers, but the four core elements of youth apprenticeship include paid on-the-job learning under the supervision of skilled employee mentors. And the programs complement that on-the-job learning with related classroom-based instruction, most often delivered through high school CTE courses, through dual enrollment courses offered at community colleges or local universities. And at the same time, that learning and the learning on-the-job is assessed on an ongoing basis against established skills and competency standards. At the conclusion of youth apprenticeship programs, students earn portable industry-recognized credentials and post-secondary credit. And for those of you who know apprenticeship, and it looks like based on our poll, many of you do, these four components are likely familiar. They're no different really than the elements that must be in place in a traditional adult-oriented apprenticeship program. And that's by design. We know these elements are core to what makes apprenticeship an effective learn and earn model. And we believe all four must be in place to reap the full benefits for young people too. At the same time, though, we know that simply having those four elements in place cannot guarantee a quality experience, especially for youth whose learning needs different in some ways than those of adults. And we know too that if youth apprenticeship is going to transform education and employment outcomes for young people, if it's truly to become a mainstream vehicle for economic mobility, some key quality principles must shape the design of these programs. And so along with the definition of youth apprenticeship, we've just shown you, OPAIA developed the following principles for high-quality youth apprenticeship. We believe that to be high quality and to deliver results for youth, employers, and communities, youth apprenticeship programs must be career-oriented, equitable, portable, adaptable, and accountable. But what do we mean by each of these? Career-oriented describes the purposeful blending of what's learned in the classroom and what's learned on the job. Apprentices can apply what they learn at school, at work, and vice versa. Brain science tells us that this is a good way for adolescents to learn. Teenagers whose dopamine-drenched brains crave new challenges and are exceptionally well-primed to learn from them thrive in environments like this. And because the skills and competencies they're developing are shaped by what nearby employers need, youth apprentices have an opportunity to develop strong technical and practical skills that make them productive, attractive employees in the future. Right away and in the future. Equitable. Youth apprenticeship programs are rigorous and competitive because they can create access to low and no-cost post-secondary credits and credentials, but they must be deliberately designed to be equitable. They are embedded within fundamentally inequitable systems of education, workforce, and our labor market. So equity must be at the center of how we think about building and implementing youth apprenticeship. It's important for these programs to both push against and work to dismantle elements of the systems that affect young people's ability to access post-secondary credentials and good jobs. One way youth apprenticeship does this is through a structured mentorship component. We know that teens benefit from structured, supportive relationships with adults, especially adults who are not their parents or teachers. It's one of the reasons athletic coaches are often the most well-liked adults in high schools. These relationships give youth a chance to encounter and try on different adult identities, and they learn what it takes to be seen by adults as capable, competent peers. Especially for students with limited social networks, workplace mentors can expose them to a much wider range of possible futures and help them develop social capital to thrive in a complex and inequitable labor market. But youth apprenticeship programs must be designed to provide and support these relationships, not simply to put young adults in jobs and hope for the best. Equity must be at the forefront of every aspect of the design and implementation of youth apprenticeship programs. The learning in youth apprenticeship programs must be recognized within our post-secondary system. It's important so that youth apprenticeship can be positioned as a way to and through higher education, not as an alternative. This is not only important for the programs themselves, but for the students who are in them so that they can have an opportunity to gain a foundational education experience on which they can build over time as they advance in their careers. And in today's economy, as I've shared, credentials and degrees matter more than ever for economic security. When industry invests in youth apprenticeship, they're making a real investment of resources and time. And to realize that investment, especially in a labor market, where it's unusual to stay at an employer for a decade, as it used to be, and the pace of technology means new types of jobs are being created all the time. Employers must work together to ensure that the learning and skills apprentices acquired through their programs are not narrowly tied to a single employer, but are broadly valued across multiple employers in an industry, sector, or region. In this way, through this kind of collaboration, youth apprenticeship becomes not a short-term strategy for filling a specific narrowly defined role, but a long-term strategy for creating a pipeline of talent for dynamic companies who are looking to build a future workforce in their regions. And in the long run, adaptability is good not only for employers, but good for apprentices too, who have opportunities to thrive and bring their talents across an industry over time. Finally, accountable. Youth apprenticeship is unique in that it straddles the world of education and work. Successfully, youth apprenticeship programs rely on the careful and constant cooperation of high schools, colleges, employers, community organizations, and many other stakeholders. Typically, one of these organizations plays an important facilitation role, balancing the interests and activities of the partners and holding each accountable for the success of the program and its apprentices. Doing so well requires not only clearly defined roles and responsibilities, but also a shared strategy for communicating, collecting, monitoring, and analyzing data to provide ongoing support to apprentices and partners, and to ensure apprentices are being equitably served. And finally, to monitor overall program performance over time. We released a set of principles two years ago next week with the important caveat that they are meant to set a high aspirational standard for the field. But it is one thing for me to list them off here and explain why they matter for youth apprentices ability to multiply students options and improve their prospects for the future. Two years ago we heard from a number of young people who are completing youth apprenticeships through programs that we feel prioritize and demonstrate these five principles. Our national partner, career-wise Colorado and the Charleston Regional Youth Apprenticeship Partnership, a program anchored by Trident Technical College. We wanted to see what these former youth apprentices are up to two years later and how the programs that they participated in through career-wise and the Charleston Regional Youth Apprenticeship Program have set them up for success. Let's take a look. I am a senior in high school and I've been at home advisor for about a year in change. And I knew they were going to be there so I decided to go and so GeoTech contacted career-wise and we just got connected and we started talking and I was able to get the apprenticeship there. I fell in love with that company. I still work there to this very day. I go there during breaks. I always talk to my employees when I'm at school. They're really fun people to be around. They're like a second family to me. But the apprenticeship, for me, it wasn't a way out of going to college because I still wanted to go to college. That was number one on my list. Did you go to Clemson? National Champions, by the way. I still wanted to go to college. I wanted to get my degree. That was number one on my list. It just gave me a second way of getting there. Not every student is going to have a 33 or 32 on the ACT or score really well on the SAT. I wasn't one of those kids. I wasn't good at taking standardized tests. So it gave me another way of getting there because I was going to do whatever I had to do to get to Clemson. The apprenticeship was something that I could put on my scholarship. I had to create an application on my resume that not all students have. The most exciting thing about the apprenticeship happened to me this summer. I came back as an engineering intern and I was able to make these IRC gauges that we use in component inspection. I designed two of them. That inspection for one of my co-workers named Kip, I made that inspection process go down by like 40%. So it's 40% faster than what it was. I designed it from using CAD and SOLIDWORKS that I learned in school through Trident. I designed it in NNX, made it on the mill because I'm a certified machinist and then we tried it, it worked and I went on and made a second one. And they're using them to this very day. It's in our system. There's things like that. There's not a lot of college students that are 20 or 21 that can be like, oh, I made this part from my job and made a process faster. I have an associate's degree as well. I have my journeyman's credentials. Not a lot of kids can say that at the age of 20. And then make $14 an hour in high school and have two years of work experience once they leave high school with all these other accolades. My name is Jude Volteweber. I was an apprentice with CareerWise Colorado working at Home Advisor. Hi, my name is Valerie Deijos and I was one of the first students to have been part of CareerWise Colorado during its first long years. I'm Marco O'Rillek Smalls. I'm from St. George, South Carolina. It's a small town about 45 minutes away from Charleston. Since then, I left Home Advisor and now work for Aetna Digital as a software development engineer in test. I actually just finished up my three-year apprenticeship with geotech environmental this past summer and I am now currently studying at Colorado State University. Although I am undeclared, I do intend to look into a major that is business or anything that I can apply the past three years. I'm currently a senior industrial engineering major here at Clemson University. The only way that I was able to get that job and kick off my career was through the experience I got with Home Advisor via CareerWise Colorado. It's just such a unique program that I hopefully more people are able to join and more students are able to learn about. It just needs to be put out on the floor more often. I was in the apprenticeship program back in 2015. I started at my senior high school. I deferred my first year of college and I stayed at Trident Tech. I finished out the program and I achieved my associate's degree in machine tool technology. And now I'm two semesters away from graduating from Clemson University. Well, it's nice to see you again. It's nice to see you again too, Taylor. What have you been up to since we saw you last in 2018 in D.C.? A good bit to be honest with you. When I was in D.C., I was still a mechanical engineering major. And here recently in the spring, earlier this spring, I switched to industrial engineering. It was just a better fit for me. I still want to be a mechanical engineer, but I switched to industrial and I plan on getting my graduate's degree in mechanical engineering from Clemson. Cool. So are you finishing up your bachelor's now moving into a master's or have you started your master's degree? I'm finishing up my bachelor's. I'll graduate next year, December. So December of 2021 as an industrial engineer. And the plan is to move into the graduate program in mechanical engineering that fall and spring. So spring of 2022. Cool. Is that what you expected when you were with us in 2018? Is that what you expected you'd be up to these days? Not at all. Not at all. I was, I don't know, ever since I was in high school or maybe even middle school. I always thought, you know, I would get my undergrad in mechanical, but after my time, like my, this is, this past August was five years at venture. So after my five years at venture and then moving to one of our sister companies, K-On. And the work that I was doing, I really fell in love with the engineering, industrial engineering style of work and the way their minds think is exactly how my mind thinks. So it was just, it was actually really a smooth transition from mechanical to industrial. But I still, like I said, I still want to get my graduate degree in mechanical engineering. Cool. So you mentioned that, that the transition in your major, you made that in part because of your exposure to the difference or ways of thinking in the job sites that you've worked on. The first company that I know you mentioned was the site that hosted you during your youth apprenticeship opportunities, right? Right. And so then the transition to the sister company, was that part of your youth apprenticeship or is that something that happened afterwards? That was something that happened afterwards, but one of the, one of the people I came in contact with during the youth apprenticeship program was actually the person that set me up with the job at K-On. So it was, there was still connection there. Yeah. Little, you've worked the networking then. Right. So is it fair to say then that your time as a youth apprentice, like when we saw you in 2018, you had finished that and you had started college. Now it's two years, even later, two years into college and onward. Is it fair to say that your time as a youth apprenticeship through the Charleston Regional Youth Apprenticeship Program continues to influence your career and education trajectory? Yes, definitely. Even like back then, I think during my time of speaking, when I was in Washington, I stated how I had this instance in class where I had to correct the professor. I haven't had instances like that again, but still that knowledge that I learned from the program still impacts me in the classroom today. As an industrial engineer, I'm taking two classes and they're not hard classes, but they're even easier for me just because of my experience at the youth apprenticeship program. So it's just coming all back to me, the things I'm learning in that program, more in those classes. So yeah, I would have to say it still impacts me today. Like it helped me with my intangible skills that I have. So like as far as communicating of public speaking. Even by Zoom. By Zoom, yeah, correct. So like even through like my intangible skills and just communicating and networking with people and being able to work in a team and be a team player. Like it helped me in like with those intangible skills, but I would stress that don't don't overlook this opportunity to help kids from a background like mine, where not a lot of students made it out of my area, and could go to like a D one school like Clemson or just appreciate prestigious school in general like Clemson. So maybe the apprenticeship program provided students like me with an opportunity to grow out of my conference zone and achieve goals that no one else in their family has achieved so far. And like the money, like the money in the program was good getting paid. I didn't have to work at McDonald's like my other friends. And so all those other accolades came along with it. Even if let's just say I don't think this will happen, but hypothetically let's say you know, I don't want to be an engineer anymore. I still have that machine background I can fall back on. Do you think you'll return to Charleston and work in the field there, or do you have goals to go elsewhere. So the plan is the plan is to go back. I wouldn't mind working for the company I worked for as he's apprentice. Um, I actually just worked at his past summer. Again, um, so I wouldn't mind going back. And then we have like all these new manufacturing plants coming in and a big one involved though involved those literally 20 minutes away from my house. And I want to move into the automotive industry. So I can see myself working there and I have some people I know that work there that are engineers, but the big goal is to work at Ford and airborne Michigan. And I have a mentor my first day on the job adventure. I'm the plant leader the old plant leader. She put me in contact with one of her friends that she went to school with that's an engineer for and I've been talking to him these past five years. He's trying to help me get my foot in the door there. So hopefully one of these days, I'll be at Ford in Michigan. That's awesome. How exciting. Well, to you if anyone, if I have faith that anyone can get there, my friend, you are that anyone. I really hope so that's the plan. All right, my goodness. So Juno who we just heard from has landed a full time role in his field that etna Valerie continues to work for the employer with whom she did her youth apprenticeship, geotech, while studying for a bachelor's degree at Colorado State. And Mark well return to venture arrow bearings again this summer. And he continues to leverage the network he developed there to access new opportunities in the region and maybe someday beyond. I don't have to say if anyone knows folks at Ford, we have a candidate for you. He is wonderful. Pi's goal for the last two years has been to lay a foundation for a field of youth apprenticeship. So more students can have the opportunities that help Judah Valerie and Mark well pursue careers and the credential they'll need to advance in their fields in the future. And so our key part of pie pie as capacity building efforts, but they really are just one piece of a growing arsenal of resource research resources tools and technical support the pi national partners have developed over the past two years to help programs launch grow and improve in line with pi vision for high quality youth apprenticeship. People be highlighting some of these findings and products in our panels and then the resource spotlights each afternoon. I encourage you to stick around each day to learn more about the tools that can advance your work in the field as a whole. We've also worked over the past few years to support the work of nine grantees who are working to build their capacity to launch and strengthen youth apprenticeship programs and to develop strategies to scale those programs and achieve sustainability over time. The nine programs we've supported with grants and technical assist assistance are here on the screen, and you'll be hearing from many of them over the course of the next couple of days as well but you can also read about them on our website. The innovation and experiment they're leading as they stand up new programs is important not only to the apprentices employers and communities that they work closely with in these cities and regions, but also for the learning of the field as a whole. And while our goal to advance and expand the field of youth apprenticeship, we do not champion growth for the sake of growth alone. We exist to help the field grow coherently intentionally and equitably so that it's learning and improving while growing and doing so in a way that expands opportunity and intentionally dismantles barriers to education and employment. The PIA network has been perhaps our most important vehicle for facilitating this learning in real time through webinars, events, office hours and national work groups hosted and led by some of our national partners. PIA provides technical assistance and facilitate the peer to peer exchange of best practices. Now nearly 50 partnerships strong the network has been an important resource for the field as partnerships across the country have adapted to the changing educational and economic conditions in response to COVID-19. In its first two years, the PIA sites we support through the network have accomplished far more than this slide would suggest. We've worked with partners to build a national network committed to a shared vision, definition and strategy for expanding youth apprenticeship in America. We launched a national research and communications agenda that yielded more than 30 individual products over just 18 months. And we've invested over a million dollars in nine communities to support the development of partnerships and strategy strategies necessary to sustain and scale up youth apprenticeship programs in those communities over time. With our support those programs have created hundreds of youth apprenticeship opportunities and now enroll collectively more than 2000 apprentices. They've expanded employer networks, brought youth apprenticeship to new industries such as early childhood education and aerospace and they continue to share what they're learning about this growth with others. Beyond the grantees the PIA network has grown to nearly 50 members as I said, all at different stages of their programmatic evolution. Counting their apprentices, employers and industries the numbers on the screen could be even greater and you will have a chance to learn about some of their successes over the course of our next three days together. Over the past two years, PIA has learned a great deal about the about youth apprenticeship. We understand now, both through the grants competition that we hosted in early 2019 and also through the number of folks on the line at the moment as well as our higher than expected RSVP count for this event. We know that the demand for youth apprenticeship is broad and deep, even despite and perhaps even more so due to COVID-19. We now understand that programs at different stages of their own evolution require and demand different types of support. And though we know that PIA's definition and principles have been important for driving alignment and consistency across programs, partners and strategies in the field, we know that those strategies still vary considerably and we have a lot to learn about how partners work together to define the work that they do and set goals for themselves as they work to become bigger, better, stronger and more sustainable over time. And finally, we've learned and it's quite clear to us that the stories, data and policy work that PIA leads will really matter in the future as programs across the country strive for stale and sustainability. These lessons will inform and shape much of the work PIA will lead over the next two years. Our next phase comes at a time that is critically important for elevating and addressing the needs of youth in a time of economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 crisis. Not only in the communities we've worked with to date throughout phase one, but beyond the PIA network as well. Now more than ever, as we've said, we've discussed young people need access to post-secondary education and economic opportunity. And PIA, Andy's apprenticeship, is well positioned to help communities adopt a strategy for promoting an inclusive economic recovery. In PIA's first two years, we've been focused on laying a foundation for the field. Our next two years will focus on accelerating the growth and improvement of high quality youth apprenticeship opportunities to address the acute needs of youth and employers in this moment and into the economy of the future. Even amidst the uncertainty unleashed by COVID, we have set an ambitious goal for the field that by 2025, there will be 10,000 youth apprentices in the United States to enjoy opportunities like those that Judah, Valerie, and Markwell have shared with us today. Well, this is still a relatively small number compared to the huge apprenticeship systems in Europe. It would represent tremendous growth in the US, both in terms of sheer numbers, but also in terms of the economic opportunity it would create for young people and their communities. But while this is a powerful benchmark for expanding participation, expansion for expansion sake has never been PIA's aim. Youth apprenticeship programs must support equitable outcomes for students and deliver results for sponsoring employers. To ensure they do so, PIA will in our next two years continue advancing our vision for quality, equity, and accountability by leading robust communications and research strategies that elevate the voices of industry champions, education workforce leaders, and youth apprentices in this growing field. To support the work of play space innovators, we will continue to reinforce best practices, develop tools to strengthen and scale programs, accelerate new initiatives, and build evidence to advance the field. And finally, to help communities around the country continue to build a dynamic place-based public-private partnerships that make youth apprenticeship possible, PIA will support a growing number of sites with strategies to bring youth apprenticeship to new industries and new communities. By continuing to test and support the implementation of local and regional efforts to build pipelines of skilled talent in crucial fields such as healthcare, IT, education, transportation, and infrastructure, PIA will ensure that the communities we support through the network will emerge from this global crisis more resilient than ever. But while we have learned a great deal over the past two years about what makes youth apprenticeship successful, we still have a great deal to learn about what it's going to take to rapidly accelerate growth in the field to hit that 10,000 goals and ensure that the programs and systems that support these communities can become sustainable over time. And this learning, both the learning that's occurred over the last two years and the learning that's ahead for PIA, is what brings us together here today on this great cool Tuesday in October. We'd always plan to convene a large group to celebrate this milestone in our learning and our work. The economic uncertainty caused by COVID and the stark inequities the crisis has both revealed and exacerbated means that youth apprenticeship in the work of PIA has taken on even greater importance as a strategy for promoting economic recovery. And so, over the next three days you'll have an opportunity to engage in conversations with apprentices, employers, system leaders, and other experts who understand how youth apprenticeship works, and what it takes to make sure programs are high quality and equitable. You will hear from educators, CEOs, and philanthropists who are all committed to advancing more inclusive economic growth through youth apprenticeship, and in working together to do so. We cannot afford to another lost generation of youth. We do not have to. Youth apprenticeship can provide access to more affordable, post-secondary learning options and expand economic opportunity and the uncertain economy, which we now find ourselves, and in the greater future that lies ahead. This is the belief that lies at the center of PIA's work. Thank you for joining us this week to learn more about the initiative, to celebrate the progress we've made to date, and to ask and answer questions about many of the topics on your screen right now. Topics that will be central to the second phase of PIA's work, which we are proud to be kicking off with you here today. Now, before I wrap up and let you on to the first panel discussion of the conference, I want to say just a few quick thanks once again to our funders for their ongoing support of partnership to advance youth apprenticeship, to our national partners for the work that you do to support the field and support us at New America, and to my colleagues and friends at New America, Mary Alice, Brent, Elena, Wool, Joyce, thank you so much for that video, Riker, Fabio, Hanna, Angela, Narmada, Jason, Shannon, and the folks from across our organization who make this project successful and will be behind the scenes in various ways this week, making sure everything goes smoothly. We could not do this work. We would not do this work without you all. So thank you for making this journey possible and a whole lot of fun.