Higher Education Innovators

Abstract

1st Place: Year-Up and GreenLight Fund. Year Up’s mission is to close the opportunity divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education. Year Up’s high support, high expectation model combines marketable job skills, stipends, internships and college credits. By focusing on students’ professional and personal development, Year Up places young adults on a viable path to economic self-sufficiency. Launched in 2013, Year Up Philadelphia Professional Training Corps targets the area’s approximately 111,000 opportunity youth (18-24- year olds out of work and school), seeking to empower their success through meaningful workforce training and college completion. The program operates in partnership with Peirce College, where all Year Up participants are enrolled, and where Year Up collaboratively utilizes and builds upon Peirce’s infrastructure, curriculum, community and goals. Upon graduating from Year Up, Philadelphia students will have completed one year of college with approximately 24 credits, contributing to the college’s persistence rates and degree attainment. In just a few years, Year Up Philadelphia has become one of the most valuable resources in the city both for individuals looking to accelerate their career and education, and for companies who need to fill entry-level positions with qualified, skilled and motivated employees from their community.