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Maryland Youth Apprenticeship Ambassador Casey Kelly Speaks at National Governors Association Event

BALTIMORE (May 7, 2019) – Casey Kelly, Maryland’s first youth apprenticeship ambassador, today participated on a panel discussion sponsored by the National Governors Association (NGA). The discussion was part of a round table of state leaders for NGA’s Future Workforce Now project, which focuses on the future of work and workforce system responses. The panel featured individuals who have successfully participated in workforce programs.

“Casey is an excellent representative of our youth apprenticeship program,” said Acting Labor Secretary James E. Rzepkowski. “The success he experienced in the program serves as a model for how effective youth apprenticeship can be in helping high school students connect to their future careers after graduation.”

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, FHI360, and the Fab Foundation, with support from the Siegel Family Endowment and the Gates Foundation, launched Future Workforce Now to help states prepare for the workforce needs of the future through rigorous research and dialogue with leading thinkers, researchers, and policymakers. The project explores the technological disruptions and global forces shaping the future of work, the resulting changes to education, training, and state policy, and the most promising policy and practices to prepare the workforce of the future.

Through a series of topical roundtables, Future Workforce Now brings together national and international experts with state policy leaders. Participants share knowledge and expertise on the disruptive forces impacting workers and education and training systems, to map a path forward for state and local success. Ultimately, the accumulated knowledge and promising solutions will be shared with state policy teams at the State Leaders Policy Forum for Action, so they may effectively frame policy and programmatic responses to address the needs of the future workforce. A toolkit will be released at the culmination of the project to guide future state action.

“I was honored to share my experiences as a youth apprentice to a cross-section of national leaders in workforce development,” said Casey Kelly. “I hope that other states can see the potential that the youth apprenticeship model has and can apply it in their communities.”

Kelly, the state’s first youth ambassador, joined the youth apprenticeship program through Washington County Public Schools. While finishing his senior year of high school, Kelly was hired as a junior analyst apprentice by Beacon Grace, a technical and professional services consulting firm based in Hagerstown, Maryland that supports the growth and success of supply chain organizations.

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