When Indianapolis rolls out the red carpet to more than 900 students for the national Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) Career Development Conference April 24-26, it does so even as the future of Indiana JAG chapters is under serious threat of elimination.
Regrettably, the current Indiana House budget does not include funding for JAG. Given the celebrated organization’s work to help foster the next generation of labor, it is essential that full funding be restored and local nonprofit workforce development boards maintain the day-to-day administration of the program.
JAG is a national workforce preparation program that provides opportunities for success to students who have experienced challenging or traumatic life experiences. Indiana’s JAG program is among the best in the nation.
The workforce development boards that oversee the program are dedicated to developing, attracting and retaining talent. These organizations are led by regional employers, who often participate in providing JAG students with real-world projects and work experiences.
Students in JAG learn a host of in-demand employability skills and are given a proven bridge to post-secondary education, the workforce or other career enhancing opportunities. In Indiana, JAG was recently expanded to 250 programs, and it is expected that 10,000 students will participate annually.
The JAG graduation rate of 96.6% in 2024 was higher than the overall state high school graduation rate of 90.2%. Those who graduated earned $20.4 million in scholarships.
Moreover, JAG statewide registered more than 2,000 engagements with employers in 2024 and a job placement rate of 55.2%, making it a premier generator of talent to meet the needs of employers.
JAG is more than an education program. It is an essential multifaceted experience that directly links to building and sustaining the workforces in our Region and state.
Students learn and compete in such areas as career decision making, business planning, financial literacy, project-based learning and prepared speaking.
Center of Workforce Innovations, the Region’s workforce development board, oversees 22 JAG programs with 887 students regionally. Twelve of our high-achieving JAG students are expected to participate in the national conference.
We are proud to have the national conference in Indiana to celebrate not only the country’s talent but the achievements of our state’s young people under the stewardship of Indiana’s workforce development boards.
Future workforce leaders like Halle Bradley, a former JAG student in Portage who is now attending college, are proof of the program’s value.
“(JAG) opens doors for you that you don’t think are there. It really teaches you and prepares you for the real world,” Bradley says.
We can ill afford to deny students such an opportunity and ignore the impact of a workforce program that works, especially as our Region focuses on supplying our employers with enough skilled talent to ensure a robust economy for years to come.
The Center of Workforce Innovations is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization that provides cost-effective solutions to meet the workforce-related needs of customers. The CWI's solutions range from building and maintaining broad-based partnerships to assisting individual organizations in creating targeted talent recruitment and retention strategies in Northwest Indiana.
