Goals

One of our four strategic goals is to provide the region’s youth with career exploration opportunities, internships, foundation skills, summer employment opportunities, career pathways and credentials to prepare them for competitive employment.

STRATEGIES INCLUDE:

  • 15 -20 young women participate annually in our Women in Technology project at TYCO/Simplex (the project celebrated it’s fourteenth year in 2016)
  • 700 youth participate in internships annually through the Connecting Activities program with at least 20 in our priority sectors (in FY14 we had 836 participants; in FY15 814; and in FY16 744)
  • 250 youth attend the regions Youth Leadership Summit (FY15 278; FY17, 300)
  • 100 youth participate annually in the Summer Youth Works program and complete CommCorps Empower Your Future Career Readiness curriculum (FY15 109; FY16, 110)
  • Use WIOA Youth funds to prepare out of school youth for employment
  • Track “Youth” outcomes through CC performance and sub-contract monitoring

WORKFORCE INNOVATIONS & OPPORTUNITIES ACT YOUTH PROGRAMMING

The North Central MA Workforce Board oversees federal Workforce Innovations & Opportunities Act (WIOA) funding serving  eligible In-School and Out-of-School youth in north central Massachusetts.

WIOA is designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy.

This programming is most imperative for North Central Massachusetts as it serves as one of many workforce development initiatives in addressing the region’s skills gap and low youth employment rate. WIOA outlines a broader youth vision that supports an integrated service delivery system and provides a framework through which local areas can leverage other federal, state, local, and philanthropic resources to support in-school youth (ISY) and out-of-school youth (OSY).

WIOA charges local workforce areas to provide a continuum of high-quality, evidence-based services and programs for all youth and young adults, including career exploration and guidance, continuous support for educational attainment, opportunities for skills training in high-demand industries and occupations, placement in secure jobs along a career pathway and enrollment in post-secondary education.