Year Up is closing the opportunity divide by providing low-income urban young adults ages 18–24 with career skills, experience, and support. With a high-support, high-expectation model that combines marketable job skills, knowledge-based apprenticeships, college credit, and a behavior management system, Year Up has placed more than 920 young adults on a viable path to economic self-sufficiency. Year Up demonstrates that young adults without post-secondary credentials can fulfill their potential and also provide employers with a reliable and cost-effective source of entry-level, knowledge-based workers.

Results

• Ninety percent of apprentices meet or exceed apprenticeship partner expectations and 87 percent of the individuals in Year Up find jobs that average $30,000 per annum after just one year in the program.

• An MIT study estimates the expected net present value increase in total lifetime income and taxes paid by a Year Up student at $444,000 and $137,000, respectively, with an even larger impact on the economic livelihood and well-being of the student’s family and community.