Among those at a higher risk of being left out are 15 million youths between 16 and 24 who are not in school.* Seventy percent of them have a high-school diploma or less, and five million live in distressed communities. These young people form a major source of human capital for the next century. We cannot afford to leave this source untapped. That is why the Department of Labor is building a national partnership with the private sector--the Youth Opportunity Movement--to invest in young people. Unlocking the talents of youth is good public policy. It is good business. And it is vital to tapping into new markets throughout the United States.

The Youth Opportunity Movement began with a four-year federal investment of over $1 billion. These funds will be used to leverage a much larger private investment in community programs to train young people. Employers will benefit from a prepared, skilled workforce to tackle the jobs of today and a larger base of consumers for their products tomorrow.

The Youth Opportunity Movement offers a way to bridge gaps and break cycles that lead to poverty and despair. In conjunction with the recently enacted Workforce Investment Act, the Department of Labor awards Youth Opportunity grants to qualifying communities. This funding enables communities to establish "one-stop" service centers, where youth can access a wide range of services and resources, and to form community-wide partnerships.

Effective strategies to help out-of-school youth find employment must address personal, societal, academic and professional challenges. Job training alone is not enough: while young people need "hard" career-oriented skills, such as computer training, they also need "soft" skills, such as learning how to interview for a job. While various programs have succeeded in treating parts of the problem, the Youth Opportunity Movement will apply a "360 degree approach" by focusing on the whole person and engaging the whole community.

*U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings, November 1998, Table A-16.

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