Launched in 2016, JPMorgan Chase & Co. New Skills for Youth (NSFY) is a $75 million, five-year global initiative aimed at transforming how cities and states ensure that young people are career ready. The local investments from across the world – Innovations Sites – aim to identify and implement the most promising ideas in career education, with a special focus on communities with the greatest needs. Germany has one of the strongest economies and relatively low unemployment numbers compared to most of Europe. However, that economic success is not reflected throughout all parts of the country. While only 9 percent of 15-29-years-olds in Germany are not in employment, education, or training (NEET), young adults with low literacy and numeracy skills who fail to earna secondary degree are almost seven times more likely to be NEET. Germans from economically disadvantaged, migrant and/or refugee families are especially impacted. To address this challenge, PHINEO, a think tank and non-profit consultancy focused on supporting effective societal engagement, launched the Zukunftsträger initiative in late 2018 with support from the JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other funders throughout Germany. The purpose of Zukunftsträger is to identify approaches that help vulnerable young people receive training to compete for the skilled jobs of the 21st century. Specifically, the goals of the Zukunftsträger initiative are to:
- Assist young people in making successful transitions from school into careers;
- Help organizations that actively assist young people in making those transitions work better together through collective impacts; and
- Generate knowledge about collective impact- including how it works and conditions for success- and make that information available so other stakeholders can benefit from the knowledge and improve collaboration.
To learn more about the NSFY Innovation Sites, visit the NSFY Innovation Sites Snapshots series page.
