Young Adult Program

Tutoring, study skills training, instruction and dropout prevention strategies that lead to completion of a high school diploma includes services such as providing academic support, helping a youth identify areas of academic concern, assisting with overcoming learning obstacles, or providing tools and resources to develop learning strategies. Dropout prevention strategies intended to lead to a high school diploma include activities that keep a young person in-school and engaged in a formal learning and/or training setting.

Alternative secondary school services assist youth who have struggled in traditional secondary education. Dropout recovery services are those that assist youth who have dropped out of school. Both types of services help youth to re-engage in education that leads to the completion of a recognized high school equivalent. Examples of activities under this program element include:

-Counseling and educational plan development

-Basic education skills training

-Individualized academic instruction

-English as a Second Language training

-Credit recovery

Paid and unpaid work experience is a planned, structured learning experience that takes place in a workplace and provides youth with opportunities for career exploration and skill development. A work experience may take place in the private for-profit section, the non-profit sector, or the public sector. Work experience for youth: summer employment and other employment opportunities available throughout the school year, pre-apprenticeship programs, internships and job shadowing, and on-the-job training.

Occupational skills training is an organized program of study that provides specific vocational skills that lead to proficiency in performing actual tasks and technical functions required by certain occupational fields at entry, intermediate, or advanced levels. Occupational skills training:

• is outcome-oriented and focused on an occupational goal specified in the individual service strategy for the youth;
• is of sufficient duration to impart the skills needed to meet the occupational goal; and
• leads to the attainment of a recognized postsecondary credential

Education offered concurrently with workforce preparation and training for a specific occupation element reflects an integrated education and training model and describes how workforce preparation activities, basic academic skills, and hands-on occupational skills training are to be taught within the same time frame and connected to training in a specific occupation, occupational cluster, or career pathway.

Leadership development opportunities encourage responsibility, confidence, employability, self-determination, and other positive social behaviors. Leadership development includes:

Other leadership activities that place youth in a leadership role, such as serving on youth leadership committees

Exposure to postsecondary educational possibilities

Community and service learning projects

Peer-centered activities, including peer mentoring and tutoring

Organizational and team work training, including team leadership training

Training in decision-making, including determining priorities and problem solving

Citizenship training, including life skills training such as parenting and work behavior training

Civic engagement activities which promote the quality of life in a community

Supportive services enable an individual to participate in WIOA activities. These services enable an individual to participate in WIOA activities (such as, but not limited to, assistance with transportation, childcare, housing, health care, educational testing, and work-related tools).

Adult mentoring is a formal relationship between a youth participant and an adult mentor that includes structured activities where the mentor offers guidance, support, and encouragement to develop the competence and character of the mentee. Mentors should be someone other than a case manager.

Follow-up services are critical services provided following a youth’s exit from the program. The goal of follow-up services is to help ensure that youth are successful in employment and/or postsecondary education and training. Follow-up services may include regular contact with a youth participant’s employer, including assistance in addressing work-related problems that arise.

Comprehensive guidance and counseling provides individualized counseling to participants. This program element also includes substance and alcohol abuse counseling, mental health counseling, and referral to partner programs.

Financial literacy education provides youth with the knowledge and skills that they need to achieve long-term financial stability. Financial literacy education encompasses information and activities on a range of topics, such as creating budgets; setting up checking and saving accounts; managing spending, credit, and debt; understanding credit reports and credit scores; and protecting against identify theft.

Entrepreneurial skills training provides the basics of starting and operating a small business. This training helps youth develop the skills associated with entrepreneurship, such as the ability to take initiative, creatively seek out and identify business opportunities, develop budgets and forecast resource needs, understand various options for acquiring capital and the trade-offs associated with each option, and communicate effectively and market oneself and one’s ideas. Examples of approaches to teaching youth entrepreneurial skills include:

Experiential programs that provide youth with experience in the day-to-day operation of a business

Entrepreneurship education introducing to the values and basics of starting and running a business, such as developing a business plan and simulations of business start-up and operation.

Enterprise development, which provides supports, and services that incubate and help youth develop their own businesses, such as helping youth access small loans or grants and providing more individualized attention to the development of viable business ideas.

Services that provide labor market and employment information about in-demand industry sectors or occupations available in the local area and includes career awareness, career counseling, and career exploration services. Labor market information also identities employment opportunities, and provides knowledge of job market expectations, including education and skill requirements and potential earnings. Numerous tools and applications are available that are user-friendly and can be used to provide labor market and career information to youth. These tools can be used to help youth make appropriate decisions about education and careers.

Postsecondary preparation and transition activities help youth prepare for and transition to postsecondary education and training. These services include helping youth explore postsecondary education options, including technical training schools, community colleges, 4-year colleges and universities, and Registered Apprenticeship programs. Examples of other postsecondary preparation and transition activities include:

Connecting youth to postsecondary education programs

Assisting youth to prepare for SAT/ACT testing

Assisting with college admission applications

Searching and applying for scholarships and grants

Filling out the proper Financial Aid applications and adhering to changing guidelines