Career-Focused Mentoring for All Youth

To meet our nation’s workforce needs, we can no longer ignore young people who are disengaged or disconnected from school, or those with disabilities.

The skills required by a changing workplace and a graying workforce mean that the United States will have to fill an additional 21 million jobs by the end of the decade, and more than two-thirds of those new and replacement jobs will require some sort of degree or credential beyond a high school diploma.

Many of these jobs will be in high-demand science, technology, engineering, and math fields that require highly developed skills and training.

The Ready to Achieve Mentoring Program (RAMP) helps communities coordinate efforts to support all young people as they move toward college and careers. Using group, peer, and

individualized mentoring, RAMP builds on existing career-development efforts by schools and employers and taps into the experience of its mentors to help students find viable career paths. To date, RAMP has worked with more than 1,200 young people in over a dozen communities nationwide. In urban, rural, and suburban communities, RAMP has helped

students of all races and backgrounds stay in school, improve attendance, and build social and professional skills. RAMP also helps ensure that communities and employers will have a pipeline of engaged, career-minded young people, and in turn, a highly skilled future workforce.

Mentoring that Matters

“Since I’ve been in RAMP, I have improved on a lot of my work. We also get a lot of courage from our mentors, which is helping me and others not give up on what we want to do. If it wasn’t for RAMP, a lot of us wouldn’t even know where to begin on our careers.” —Desiree, a RAMP student

Research has shown that mentoring can improve student outcomes in many ways, including academic performance, behavioral issues, and social skills. RAMP builds on the benefits of

one-on-one guidance for young people by training mentors in a structured approach that focuses on career exploration and goal setting.

RAMP also recognizes that time spent talking with adults isn’t enough. By working with broad-based coalitions of employers, community service organizations, and volunteers in each community, RAMP provides a host of opportunities and supports for participants, including:

School-to-Career Supports for Student Success

Ongoing, career-focused mentoring

Peer support

Regular self-assessment and goal-setting

Hands-on experience

Workplace exposure and development of professional skills

Emphasis on high-demand STEM fields

Support for students with disabilities

Meeting Local Workforce NeedsThrough far-reaching partnerships with employers, each RAMP site is grounded in the local labor market and emphasizes high-demand fields available close to home, including exciting fields such as aviation, theater technology, and video game development. A broad array of businesses serve

as RAMP partners—retail management and food services, auto sales and repair, health and hospitality businesses, media and communications, and public service (see box, left).

With RAMP’s career-focused mentoring, students come to employers with a desire to learn more about professions in their field. Through job shadowing, internships, mock interviews, and hands-on activities, employers introduce students to their fields and help them make

connections to their futures. In turn, RAMP provides employers with a pipeline of future workers who have already identified professions of interest to them and are focused on the steps they need to take to prepare for their careers. RAMP also challenges preconceived workplace notions about “at-risk” youth. These notions put employers at risk of experiencing unmet workforce needs.

RAMP PartnersStarbucks

NASABlue Cross/Blue Shield

Albany Police DepartmentMary Kay CosmeticsInsight Photography

Open Media FoundationKasino Brown Music

Powerhouse AthleticsThe W Hotel

The Weather Research CenterFox 45 NewsWKTV Radio

New Orleans Municipal CourtWaccassasa Volunteer Fire Dept.

After three years, RAMP has resulted in improved outcomes in communities of all kinds—rural, urban, suburban—and among students of all races and backgrounds. Among key outcomes:

Real-World Results

96% of students stayed in school—well above the typical retention rate for the at-risk youth RAMP serves

93% non-offense rate

90% completed the year-long RAMP program

69% improved school attendance

58% felt their social supports improved as a result of being involved in the program

43% saw improvements in assessed social competenciesGrowing numbers of young people committed to future careers create workforce pipelines for employers Re-engaging disconnected youth strengthens entire communities, reducing criminal justice and social welfare costs

This document was developed under a grant supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs (2009-JU-FX-0035). The opinions contained in this publication are those of the grantee/contractor and do

not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Institute for Educational Leadership4301 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 100

Washington, DC 20008(202) 822-8405

RAMPing Up in Your Community

RAMP is operated in cities and communities across the country by a diverse range of organizations, including community-based non-profits,

local government agencies, and universities. RAMP complements existing school and community programs for youth and career

development.

Since volunteers provide most of RAMP services, local organizations typically only have to provide a coordinator to support the program.

For more information on getting started, contact the program director at ramp@iel.org.

www.ramp.iel.org