Mentoring plays a significant role in preparing youth to enter the workforce by providing them with the guidance, support, and essential skills they need to thrive in a 21st century workforce. Mentoring supports youth in several key areas including skills development, career exploration, networking, confidence building, goal setting, and long-term career planning. For younger youth, workforce development supports building their soft skills, such as teamwork, listening, problem solving and collaboration.  

Workforce development is an important topic for employers today, with many saying that the inability to find qualified workers is their biggest obstacle to growth. At the same time, more than 75 percent of youth express concerns about whether they have the skills necessary to secure a job. 

Youth workforce development is supported by the federal government through the Workforce Investment Opportunities Act (WIOA) at the Department of Labor. However, the workforce programs supported by WIOA only focus on building the skills of youth aged 14-24. None of the funding supports kids younger than 14, leaving a policy gap to teach younger kids the soft skills they need to thrive as they explore possible career paths.  

To address this gap, the Youth Workforce Readiness Act, bi-partisan legislation supported by BBBSA, was introduced in Congress. The Youth Workforce Readiness Act (YWRA) would establish a competitive grant program through the Department of Labor for national out-of-school time organizations to support local affiliates that provide workforce readiness programs focused on essential skill development, career exposure, employability and certification, and work-based learning for kids aged 6-18.  

Passage of the YWRA would boost programmatic support for younger kids to enhance their soft skills and provide a significant new federal funding source for BBBS’ workforce development work through our signature program, Beyond School Walls.  

To help move this legislation forward in Congress, we encourage you to make your voice heard by emailing a support letter to your members of Congress by visiting BBBSA’s Action Center: https://www.votervoice.net/BBBSA/Campaigns/103550/Respond.