New Orleans’ Playbook for Closing the Skills Gap
The city is betting internships and clearly defined career pathways will lead to increased economic mobility for young New Orleanians
By Alison Gardy
**Even before COVID-19 exposed and exacerbated so many symptoms of the United States’ crisis of economic inequality, local governments were working on better ways forward. Through the What Works Cities (WWC) Economic Mobility initiative, launched in June 2019, nine cities chose to develop critical projects to increase the financial security and economic mobility of their most vulnerable residents — often in low-income communities of color.
The story below is a snapshot: a record of a persistent obstacle to economic mobility, of a city creatively engaged with the problem, of an emerging solution. Written before the pandemic began, it shows the commitment and leadership of city leaders, staff, and local community partners who recognized the need for change. Although COVID-19 is reshaping economic mobility challenges and solutions around the country, the stories of these pre-crisis actions and insights remain instructive and valuable.
As the hard tasks of response and recovery continue, WWC will be publishing stories about how cities have evolved their economic mobility projects to meet the moment.**
NEW ORLEANS, LA — Close the skills gap and reap prosperity. The City of New Orleans is trying to make this simple idea a reality, and for good reason. Over the next 10 years, the Greater New Orleans economy will need to fill 78,000 jobs in skilled trades, applied sciences, and technology that require education beyond high school, but not necessarily a four-year degree. Yet many young New Orleanians lack the necessary training to compete for those jobs. Without it, they can’t enjoy the wealth new jobs will bring to the region.
Determined to set young residents up for success, the City launched a Spring internship program in 2019 for high school students in partnership with the nonprofit YouthForce NOLA. It enhances YouthForce’s already-successful internship program by both improving the enrollment process and creating developmentally appropriate, career pathway-aligned projects for student interns. The program also includes guidance for supervisors to provide feedback and skill development so that students can maximize their internship experience.
For young New Orleanians, opportunities for career technical training are key to unlocking future prosperity. Over a lifetime in the United States, people with two-year post-secondary degrees earn on average $420,000 more than those with only a high school diploma. Nearly 35 percent of New Orleans residents 25 years and older have only a high school degree, U.S. Census Bureau data show. About 16 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds are not in school and unemployed.
It’s a painful juxtaposition: One-quarter of New Orleans residents live in poverty and more than half of all residents live paycheck to paycheck, according to a 2019 report by United Way of Southeast Louisiana. At the same time, thousands of jobs requiring post-secondary training go unfilled across the state.
YouthForce’s approach to boosting employment prospects has been recognized as effective. Its internships include “many recognized best practices,” a 2018 MRDC report noted, including 60 hours of paid soft skill and business etiquette training, 90 hours of paid work in an in-demand sector like healthcare or technology, coaches who provide support and guidance, and transit passes.
How much of the skills gap in high-growth industries can the City help close by expanding YouthForce’s program? How many young New Orleans residents might improve their life trajectory with some strategic trainings and support? These are the crucial questions City’s officials are looking to answer.
Lower Barrier to Entry
The partnership between the City and YouthForce was made possible by New Orleans’ entrance into the What Works Cities (WWC) Economic Mobility initiative. It’s helping nine cities across the country identify, pilot, and measure the success of local strategies designed to accelerate economic mobility for their residents.
Although YouthForce’s internship program was working, the City and the nonprofit knew there was a clear opportunity to further scale it. A first step was to streamline the onerous documentation process that high school student applicants face upon acceptance into the program. In prior years, a large number of high school students who otherwise qualified for YouthForth internships were not able to produce the required paperwork and thus could not participate in the program.
YouthForce staff also spent significant time and resources to help troubleshoot these challenges with students and their families to locate the documents that were required in order for the student to be matched with an employer, set up a personal bank account for direct deposit payments, and get paid with federal funds. (Documents included birth certificates, social security numbers, a state-issued identification, proof of residency, and legal guardianship papers.) Some workplaces also had their own additional documentation requirements, such as a tuberculosis test, drug test, and a background check.
For some students, the process of gathering documents was painful, even traumatic. “I couldn’t get all of my documents together,” says Arkisha Lawrence, 19, who had a YouthForce internship in the summer of 2019.
Though born in New Orleans, Lawrence’s family — like so many other New Orleanians — was upended by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Lawrence’s family moved to Houston, Texas to live with her father’s relatives. Years later, they returned to New Orleans just a few months before Lawrence’s internship at a hair product company began.
But it had felt nearly impossible to gather all the required documents. Ultimately, YouthForce staff helped Lawrence locate everything and open a bank account. Were it not for the timely assistance, Lawrence would have missed out on an internship that has fueled entrepreneurial ambitions to create her own hair products.
To lessen the documentation barrier, YouthForce is working with the City to determine which documents are truly essential. The organization is also working with WWC partner, the Behavioral Insights Team (BIT), on strategic messaging to help guide students through the document-gathering process in a timely manner.
Pathways to Careers
The City and YouthForce are also working to deepen the value and impact of the internship experience by developing “playbooks” for success. Each playbook is a tailored guide for both employers and interns detailing a career pathway-aligned project in high-growth local industries. The sectors include digital media/IT, health sciences, skilled crafts, and business services.
The playbook provides an employer-informed skill-building roadmap for interns, detailing the requirements of each career pathway and its respective industry. It also helps employers understand what they need to do as mentors and helps interns understand how to make the most of their internships and what it takes to get hired. Some potential employer partners have chosen not to participate in the internship program because they are unsure how to keep interns engaged. To ease this concern, the playbooks lay out expectations for both interns and employers.
YouthForce has devoted substantial resources to creating the playbooks. It collaborated with the nonprofit MHA Labs, which last year convened 40 to 50 youth development partners via video to gather input on optimal playbook content. Then YouthForce sent educators into New Orleans workplaces for two days of job shadowing; this helped each playbook incorporate the different needs of different industries.
“YouthForce sent someone to our office who tried to understand our department and a role an intern might play,” says Sarah McLaughlin Porteous, director of the Mayor’s Special Projects and Strategic Engagement Office. She envisioned interns being helpful in digital communications. “Interns can share what reaches people their age in social media,” she continues. “We need to reach younger people to help them understand the environmental challenges our city faces.” (The City of New Orleans was the first employer to come aboard the retooled internship program.)
At the time of this writing, YouthForce was developing two playbooks for each of four career pathways: business manager, facilities manager, graphic designer, and software engineer. For example, one facilities management playbook covered heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), while another focused on engineering.
YouthForce hopes they benefit young people in New Orleans and beyond. “Consistent with our values of transparency, equity, and collaboration the playbooks will be open-sourced and available for all to use online,” says Cate Swinburn, co-founder and president of the organization.
The Work Has Just Begun
In spring 2020, the City kicked off its partnership with YouthForce by finding internships for 40 public high school seniors across 10 City departments. This allowed YFN to test out the documentation improvements, as well as the playbooks. They plan to iterate based on the findings in order to scale student and employer engagement in the years to come.
But given the size of the skills gap the region faces, the City and YouthForce know the work has just begun. It will have to be sustained across successive government administrations and integrated into private sector internships for substantial progress to be made. Both the City and YouthForce will need to remain committed to evaluation, so that they know that the internship playbooks are bringing value to the work. And sustained attention to training and intern placements is by no means the only necessary solution — there are also contingent barriers to address. The public transportation system is ill-equipped to connect people to higher-paying jobs based outside city limits, for example.
Success also depends on ongoing validation and support from City staff championing evidence-based programs and data-driven decision-making. It is a promising sign that, in Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration, major advocates of the playbook-guided internship program, such as McLaughlin Porteous, also served in the preceding administration.
New Orleans has endured significant hardship this century. But in response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, city residents re-envisioned their future for the long haul. Successive local administrations rebuilt across the ensuing 15 years. The skills gap the City seeks to close and the economic mobility it hopes to jumpstart is not the result of a natural disaster. But achieving these goals will take a similarly long-term commitment. The hope is that employees of current and future high-growth sectors will carry the baton of the internship program forward, re-committing to rebuilding a better New Orleans.
Alison Gardy is a communications consultant for Results for America. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Texas Observer.
The What Works Cities Economic Mobility initiative aims to help nine participating cities identify, pilot, and measure the success of local strategies designed to accelerate economic mobility for their residents. Through the expertise of the What Works Cities’ network of partners and the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Ballmer Group, this initiative puts data and evidence at the center of local government decision-making.
Launched in 2015, What Work Cities helps local governments use data and evidence to tackle their most pressing challenges and improve residents’ lives. Learn more about What Works Cities at whatworkscities.org.
