New Skills Boston

In an era of rapid technological advancements and changing industry landscapes, Boston's demand for a skilled and adaptable workforce has never been greater. Recognizing the need for a proactive approach to bridging the gap between education and employment is New Skills Boston, an innovative initiative that aims to equip students at the K-12 level with the practical skills and knowledge required to thrive in college and enter today’s evolving job market.

A National Network: JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s New Skills Ready Network

New Skills Boston is one of six sites selected nationally for JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s New Skills Ready Network. Launched in 2020, this initiative received a $7 million investment over five years, with the goal of closing the education-employment gap.

Boston-based education nonprofit EdVestors was selected to oversee and implement the New Skills Boston initiative in collaboration with K-12, two- and four-year institutions, workforce partners, local philanthropy, and government organizations.

Through strategic partnerships with Boston Public Schools, Bunker Hill Community College, the University of Massachusetts Boston, The Boston Foundation, Boston Private Industry Council, the City of Boston, and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education, this collaborative effort aims to provide high-quality career learning opportunities for all young people.

The partnership represents a powerful synergy between nonprofit organizations and educational institutions that believe in a city where all young people can engage in high-quality career learning that supports exploration, informed decision-making, and preparation for the future. The New Skills Boston initiative aims to dramatically increase the number of Black, Latinx, special education, and English Learner students who participate in and persist through engaging, relevant, and equitable career pathways and are prepared to enter meaningful careers.

New Skills Boston seeks to transform educational and career systems to drive equitable outcomes for all students. Recognizing and embracing the cultural wealth students bring to schools, the initiative values their unique knowledge, skills, and abilities to navigate their environment despite systemic barriers, including structural racism. The New Skills Boston Team focuses on four core components: high-quality, demand-driven career pathways; industry-aligned work-based learning; seamless postsecondary transitions; and equity for all students. Cross-sector partnerships and system building serve as foundations of the work.

Building off of the $500,000 in funding JPMorgan Chase & Co. awarded to BHCC in 2020 through 2023 for the Career Pathways Impact Project, “Ethnographies of Work” (EoW) is designed to address the career counseling needs of community college students, incorporating a holistic review of advising, career input and integration with current college systems to enhance student experience.

As part of that project, BHCC expanded the EoW by providing faculty training, student support and structure to enable long-term growth. EoW originated at Guttman Community College, part of the City University of New York public college system, as a year-long social science course for community college and high school students.

Through EoW, 118 faculty members have worked to integrate opportunities for students to explore career pathways into their curricula and encourage students to critically examine the world of work through worksite observations (F2F and/or virtual), personal reflections (student experiential course activities), and career planning and exploration (exposure to career assessment tools, feedback, and worksite experiences). This approach allows students to investigate the role of work in human lives while embedding relevant career exploration activities in the curriculum from the early stages of their academic journey until their capstone courses.

BHCC continues to broaden the disciplinary scope of EoW, integrating courses—ranging from behavioral and social sciences, and STEM to the humanities, visual media arts, and allied health—to empower students to reflect on and research career pathways

from a variety of disciplinary standpoints. In its fourth year, EoW has expanded to over 1,900 students and 154 courses and is a faculty-driven model.

In the first year, the New Skills Boston team identified gaps in data capacity, defined high-quality college and career pathways, conducted a labor market analysis, and began work on equity and cultural wealth frameworks. Building on this foundation laid in year one, the team optimized their processes and expanded their working groups to better design the components of the career pathways and opportunities for students. At Boston Public Schools (BPS), the team expanded access to the MyCap career exploration tool to BPS Middle School students.

The team focused on increasing capacity in four focus high schools, planning and implementing career pathways, developing resources to engage employers in work-based learning experiences aligned to career pathways and formalizing partnerships for schools,

supporting cross-institutional efforts around seamless transitions and bolstering dual enrollment program offerings and wraparound support for learners.

BHCC and UMass Boston are partnering with schools and focusing on the foundational work for more seamless transitions between their institutions. The two institutions deepened their collaboration by focusing on learners’ experiences during transitions between institutions, regularly connecting to map existing support services and sharing their advising frameworks.

Collectively, they have identified areas of opportunity to improve communications, align systems and enhance resource awareness. Their collective next steps will be to pilot strategies enabling more seamless advising and transitions between institutions and to investigate strategies that will reduce credit loss for transfer students.

Looking ahead, New Skills Boston aims to implement flexible pathways, strengthen advising experiences, enhance employer engagement, and facilitate credit transfer between secondary and postsecondary institutions. By prioritizing school-based coordination and deepening partnerships, New Skills Boston strives to empower students with the necessary tools while addressing systemic inequities and promoting equal opportunities for all.