The Biden-Harris Administration today announced the launch of the Unlocking Pathways Summit series, a key part of the Raise the Bar: Unlocking Career Success initiative, aimed at helping young Americans access good-paying jobs created by President Biden’s Bidenomics agenda. The series is supported by the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Labor, and Transportation to increase and expand access to high-quality career pathways to help young Americans pursue jobs in today’s in-demand fields and be prepared for careers of the future.

This summit series, co-hosted with the national education and workforce development organization Jobs for the Future (JFF), consists of four regional education-workforce convenings to highlight workforce priorities and opportunities for young people that are growing due to recent federal investments, like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act. This includes expanding access to high-wage, high demand pathways and skills-based learning opportunities, including Registered Apprenticeships and community college programs, in sectors like advanced manufacturing, clean energy, construction, and cybersecurity.

“From the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to the CHIPS and Science Act to the Inflation Reduction Act and beyond, President Biden’s Investing in America agenda will create millions of well-paying jobs in the coming years, and it’s on us to ensure students have pathways into these incredible career opportunities,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “Our Unlocking Pathways Summits will empower state and local leaders in K-12 and postsecondary education, government, and the private sector to Raise the Bar for career-connected learning that engages and supports our youth, meets America’s future workforce needs, and ensures our nation continues to lead the world. Our economy demands and our students deserve state and local leaders prepared to meet this moment.”

Each Unlocking Pathways Summit will bring together leaders from education, workforce and industry from multiple states. This invite-only event is an opportunity for key decision makers to share critical strategies and address shared challenges in developing robust talent pipelines. Each state is sending a team spanning K-12 education, postsecondary education, workforce development, and employers to specifically re-imagine how that state’s education and workforce development planning can and should include young people.

“JFF is honored to co-host this summer’s Unlocking Pathways Summits. Education-to-career pathways represent perhaps the most promising and bipartisan agenda in education over the last decade. Congress has recently appropriated billions of dollars that can accelerate and deepen this work,” said Maria Flynn, CEO and President of Jobs for the Future. “This is an historic opportunity to engage leaders from every state in the country in re-envisioning and redesigning education and workforce development systems, to invest in cross-sector collaboration, and ultimately to prepare the workforce needed to meet our country's economic imperatives.”

The series will kick off today at Renton Technical College in Renton, Washington, and will be hosted in partnership with the Department of Transportation featuring construction and infrastructure pathway opportunities and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Unlocking Pathways Summit series will continue over the summer in Aurora, Colorado, with the Department of Energy, featuring clean energy pathways and the Inflation Reduction Act; Madison, Wisconsin, with the Department of Commerce featuring CHIPS and Science Act; and in Biloxi, Mississippi, with the Department of Labor with a focus on technology and cybersecurity.

The Summits complement the Biden-Harris Administration’s Workforce Hubs, which were launched earlier this year in an initial set of five cities that are seeing an influx of private and public investment, spurred by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. The Hubs focus on bringing together industry, state, local, and national leaders, as well as community college and union partners to help more Americans of all ages and walks of life access the training and tools to fill good-paying jobs created as a result of the President’s economic agenda.