OHIO WORKFORCE COALITION

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October Webinar

Building More Effective Career Navigation for Young People

Thursday, October 23, 2025 | 1:00-2:00pm

The ASA Center for Career Navigation at Jobs For the Future works to empower young people ages 16-24 to find information about, funding for, and access to education and workforce pathways that allow them to meet their full potential and advance in their chosen career. The center recently released a 50-state landscape analysis highlighting how states can build more effective career navigation systems to better meet the needs of young people. It analyzes the extent to which states have enacted policies in areas such as actionable information, personalized guidance, work-based learning, and short-term credentials necessary to achieve that goal.

Erica Cuevas and Alex Sileo support the policy workstream of the center and have been working to uncover:

How states are currently helping young people with their career navigation needs,
What gaps or barriers persist, and
How federal and state action can ensure more young people connect with a well-trained practitioners who can help them access key information and resources to pursue education and career pathways that are meaningfully connected to their skills and interests.

Erica and Alex will provide an overview of the ASA Center for Career Navigation’s efforts and findings from their recent work.

When Working Isn’t Enough: Wages and Public Benefits in Ohio

The Ohio Workforce Coalition commissioned The Center for Community Solutions to investigate wages, public benefit eligibility, and benefit uptake by occupation in Ohio. Despite working - often full-time - many Ohioans still require benefit assistance (e.g., SNAP and Medicaid) to access food and medical care. This report outlines key findings from 10 low wage occupations, benefit usage by occupation, and policy recommendations. Fact sheets for each occupation (e.g., childcare worker, home health aide, assemblers and fabricators) include wages, number of job openings, projected growth, benefit eligibility, and whether Black workers are overrepresented in the low wage job.

Read the Report (English)