Our Big Desired Outcome
Whenever I approach a big problem –– especially one that makes me feel overwhelmed by its complexity or high-stakes nature –– I always pause first to anchor myself to the desired outcome. A desired outcome will give me and other critical stakeholders and partners a North Star to which we can constantly strive to ensure we’re aligned and focused and have something against which we can track our progress. If the desired outcome isn’t clear, it’s much harder to accomplish. With that in mind, I’d like to share the most significant desired outcome that drives my work and some insights into how I developed it in partnership with others.
What Big Problem Am I Trying To Solve?
Right now, it is rare that DC residents who’ve progressed through our public education system are hired into our region’s good jobs. In fact, it is the exception rather than the rule that our DC Public and Public Charter School alums are eventually in careers with family-sustaining wages. Let’s unpack this a bit:
According to the DC Policy Center’s “Measuring Early Career Outcomes” Report, the best available information indicates that DC’s public school alumni who stay in DC as young adults earn about half the income of their peers who moved out of the city.
Of the ten most commonly held occupations for youth born in DC, only four meet the criteria associated with a Good Job. The most widely held job among youth born in DC is a cashier, with a median annual wage of $31,180, nearly $15,000 below the family-sustaining salary for a single adult living in DC.
Trends in employment in Good Jobs among DC-born residents continue into and through adulthood. “The top 10 occupations held by D.C.-born residents between the ages of 45 and 64 include four that pay right around the minimum wage mark (cooks, cashiers, janitors, and drivers) and only one (managers) that pays above the area median salary… Each year, more young Black people born and raised in the District join this pool of residents without access to high-wage, high-potential jobs, which perpetuates a vicious cycle that results in a lifetime of low opportunities.” While this mirrors national trends, it doesn’t make it any easier to digest.
The wealth gap between Black and White families in the District is the highest in the country.
DC has the highest Black-White unemployment rate gap in the country.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: when I think of what I want for my own children and the youth of our city, it’s to be able to support themselves and their families in the city where they were raised and educated. The equity gap in DC is serious and pervasive, and we have some big work ahead of us to narrow and eventually close that gap.
What Does Our Desired Outcome Look Like?
To me, success looks like flipping the script –– that it’s the RULE rather than the exception that the graduates of DC’s education system are eventually hired into and succeeding in the District’s good jobs. More formally, this desired outcome is called a local, diverse talent pipeline. A strong local talent pipeline exists when we have a system that connects and catalyzes employers and educators to ensure residents are prepared for, hired into, and succeeding in good jobs within a local economy. Let me give you a few examples of what success through multiple pathways can look like within a strong, local talent pipeline.
Trina, a DC Public Schools alumna, is now a middle school teacher at her alma mater. She explored and honed her career interests during three Career Ready Summer Internships as a high schooler at one of the city’s amazing Career Academies. During her first summer internship, Trina interned at a government agency in the District. She enjoyed the experience but was looking for something about which she felt more passionate. Trina was studying Engineering, so she tried an internship with a construction firm but realized that while she loved the theory behind the work, being on a site all day wasn’t a good fit for her. The following summer, she secured an internship with a STEM Education nonprofit in the city –– bingo– she loved it! Trina applied and then was accepted to North Carolina A&T where she majored in Education. She excelled in college and graduated in four years. She is thrilled to be teaching STEM to middle schoolers in her home city. Because of Trina’s Career Exploration and Preparedness experiences, she arrived at college much more confident in her postsecondary plan. I’m excited that the District continues to invest in its Career Academies, as Trina’s experience is exactly what I hope for more of our youth.
Jubei started his CareerWise DC Apprenticeship at Accenture during his Senior year at McKinley Tech High School after a successful summer internship with On Ramps to Careers. CareerWise DC is a three-year, modern youth apprenticeship program that prepares DC high schoolers for competitive, high-wage careers in occupations such as business operations, information technology, and finance. At Accenture, a global professional services company, Jubei works as a Cybersecurity Youth Apprentice, where he creates code to improve internal reporting and workflow. Jubei has grown significantly as a professional during his Apprenticeship. “I first learned how to code with Python at the beginning of my apprenticeship,” he said. “Now, I actually make the code and work with our developers through implementation.” Jubei is entering his third year of apprenticeship working full-time in IT at Accenture. After his apprenticeship, his goal is to secure a permanent position as a cybersecurity and risk mitigation specialist at Accenture.
What Are Our Next and Most Important Steps to Achieving a Strong, Local Talent Pipeline?
Achieving a strong, local talent pipeline requires much work, collaboration, and coordination across many moving parts. Some of these enabling conditions include:
Ensuring that DC has a way to measure the career outcomes of its residents (see more on our efforts to date in supporting DC’s establishment of an Education to Employment Data System here);
Having agreed upon goals and definitions of success among employers, educators, workforce developers, city leaders, community members, and young people;
Knowing and proactively addressing the most significant barriers standing between our youth and good jobs;
Ensuring employers are engaged and leading talent pipeline efforts; and
Offering youth access to high-quality programming that allows them to learn about and develop informed and actionable postsecondary plans. (Trina’s Career Academy and Internship experiences and Jubei’s internship and CareerWise DC Apprenticeship are excellent examples of this)
Taking steps to achieve that strong local talent pipeline is what I get to do every day here at CityWorks DC. Over the next few months, I’ll be writing more about those many complex, moving parts, key barriers and challenges, successes to date, and other essential enabling conditions.
What does a strong, local, diverse talent pipeline in DC look like to you? How would you describe it in your own words? Reach out to me to continue this conversation.