Building a Thriving Workforce: Career Preparation During Adolescence

The fourth annual Adolescent Brain Development Symposium, hosted by the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent, convened policymakers, youth-serving organizations, young people, and researchers to talk about Building Economic Opportunity during Adolescence. The first discussion of the day explored how to build a thriving workforce using career preparation programs and policies. During this session, Kyle Hartung, EdD, the associate vice president of Jobs for the Future; Stephanie Peete, MPA, the senior director of workforce development for Say Yes Buffalo; and Lilian Beaudoin, an apprentice at Say Yes Buffalo, spoke with moderator Andrew J. Fuligni, the co-executive director of the UCLA Center for the developing Adolescent, about what makes a career preparation program successful and how we can incorporate developmental science into these programs to help prepare young people for a successful and fulfilling career. Participant Bios: Kyle Hartung has worked as a teacher, leader, consultant, and researcher in public K–12 systems and higher education settings. At Jobs for the Future, Kyle leads work with state and regional leaders to design and scale solutions to reimagine how people experience and move through education and workforce development systems to ensure they access the knowledge, skills, credentials, and capital critical to advance in a career, achieve economic advancement, and realize their best possible futures. Kyle is co-author of The Big Blur and a regular participant in the ongoing conversation about equity, education, and the future of learning and work. A lifelong Buffalonian and graduate of the Buffalo Public School system, Stephanie Peete is the senior director of workforce development at Say Yes Buffalo, where she leads programs and strategies to create equitable opportunities for Buffalo’s emerging talent. She also serves on various boards and created the Employer Think Tank series, an initiative that invites Western NY employers and leaders to deepen their understanding of racial equity to create more inclusive workplaces. To date, this initiative has brought more than 400 business leaders and employers together to address systemic barriers in the Greater Buffalo region. Lilian Beaudoin is a computer software development student at Villa Maria College and a scholar at Say Yes Buffalo. She works at M&T Bank in digital analytics, where she leads internal implementations of Quantum Metric across key applications to enhance user experience through data-driven insights. Her apprenticeship has allowed her to gain hands-on experience working with real-world data and develop practical skills in analytics and user experience. Learn more at developingadolescent.org