Bridging the Opportunity Divide for Low-Income Youth: Implementation and Early Impacts of the Year Up Program

This report evaluates the early impacts of the Year Up program. Year Up is a national training program for youth between 18-24 years of age. It provides individuals with 6 months of full-time training in IT and financial service sectors, followed by a 6-month internship, with an emphasis on professional and technical skills development. Findings indicate that Year Up participants reported higher-than-average earnings after assignment, as well as high satisfaction rates within the classroom. This consistently large and positive effect on incomes – when compared to the control group – represents the largest positive impact to date for any federal workforce program tested in this manner. Findings also indicated that adherence to program design during implementation was also largely positive, though outcomes vary between Year Up offices.