job training

A group of foundations and other grant makers are backing a small investment in one of the Trump administration’s favorite workforce ventures: apprenticeships. The Ballmer Group, Annie E. Casey Foundation and several other funders will back a $1 million grant to connect young people to career training opportunities. 

The congressional effort to provide tax incentives for hiring current and former foster youths has resurfaced, with bills that could be introduced in both chambers as early as today. The Improved Employment Outcomes for Foster Youth Act would provide tax credits of up to $2,400 to employers who hire current and former foster youth between the ages of 18 and 27.

In the late 1970s, a youth worker in New York City named Dorothy Stoneman started a program that paired entry into the construction trade with academic advancement to draw in youth who had fallen off the path to graduation and employment.

President Trump has nominated former Bush official and current Kentucky workforce chief John Pallasch last month to head the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA), which oversees a large block of youth employment dollars that the administration has targeted for cuts in its first two budget proposals.

As far as youth and family services are concerned, President Trump’s 2019 budget proposal did not differ much in terms of request from his first proposal from 2018. CLICK HERE for Youth Services Insider’s chart of key youth funding lines.

In the wake of President Trump’s call for increased attention to workforce development during the State of the Union address, the Urban Alliance released a white paper with recommendations focused on job training and career planning for youth and young adults.

House appropriators want to supply financial assistance for people who are out of work in the many areas of America affected by natural disasters this year. Chief among them, of course: parts of Texas and Florida, and all of Puerto Rico.

As reported here last week, the Adoption Tax Credit was slated for repeal last week when the Republican tax plan was unveiled. After a flurry of lobbying from pro-adoption and pro-life groups, ATC is off the chopping block.

President Trump campaigned to victory with a platform that included more jobs, better jobs, and a commitment to invest in America’s infrastructure. The early details on his first budget do not suggest that the existing federal job programs – which are mostly aimed at youth and young adults – are a priority in that vision.