Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the six sites selected to participate in the New Skills ready network. This five-year initiative, launched by JPMorgan Chase & Co. in 2020, aims to improve student completion of high-quality career pathways. In the first year of the initiative, the Boston, Massachusetts, New Skills ready network team identified data capacity gaps to measure career pathway experiences and outcomes, leveraged shared definitions of high-quality college and career pathways (HQCCP) and work-based learning, completed a COVID-19 (coronavirus) labor market analysis for the city, began the critical work of understanding equity and cultural wealth frameworks, and developed an equity-minded approach to call for and support pilot high schools that will serve as early models of HQCCP in high-priority industry sectors.
This snapshot provides a summary of the two major priorities of Boston, Massachusetts’ New Skills ready network team:
- Building a systems-change mindset among the cross-sector team; and
- Developing common and foundational definitions to signal their commitment to equity.