By Camsie McAdams, STEM Next’s Director of the Institute for a STEM Ready America
In a new call to action for employers to move beyond recruitment and become active partners in shaping how young people learn, the U.S. Department of Labor has released its Talent Strategy: Building the Workforce for the Golden Age in collaboration with the Departments of Commerce and Education. It’s a vision that recognizes the urgent need to prepare today’s youth for careers in fast-growing, high-demand fields.
While the report does not explicitly name afterschool or summer programs, this is where the out-of-school-time (OST) field shines. Afterschool is where employers can easily and rapidly plug into an existing infrastructure for career-connected learning — one that complements what schools provide and offers young people hands-on experiences that prepare them for the future of work.
At STEM Next Opportunity Fund, through the Institute for a STEM Ready America, we are scaling proven approaches to excite 20 million more young people with STEM by 2030. Here’s how afterschool is already delivering on the promise of the Department of Labor’s vision.
Employers co-design learning, not just exposure
Afterschool programs bring industry leaders in to help shape activities, mentor youth, and connect learning to real career possibilities. Across the country, STEM professionals are participating meaningfully in afterschool and summer programs by mentoring youth, guiding hands-on projects and visits to real workplaces, and exposing youth to a wide array of STEM careers. These experiences make learning more relevant and help young people connect what they are learning today to real opportunities in the future.
The federal workforce strategy calls for deeper employer engagement in education, urging programs to move beyond “train and pray” models, where learning occurs in isolation from workforce realities. In OST, that call is already being answered.
- Future is Bright – Genomics (Illumina): Through a special partnership with global genomics leader Illumina, STEM Next connected genomics professionals directly to youth and expanded access to hands-on activities that sparked their interest in biotechnology. Thousands of DNA extraction kits went to afterschool programs and families nationwide. As Mary, a student in South Carolina, shared, “We do not usually get to do a lot of hands-on labs in other classes, and it was nice to try something new.”
- Intel Future Skills in Ohio: With support from the Intel Foundation and the Ohio Afterschool Network, summer camps reached more than 430 youth across urban and rural communities. Intel volunteers guided students through design-thinking challenges, leaving participants excited, like Qua’zeir, a 5th grader, who said, “The activities we did made me feel confident and not give up.”
Ready-to-scale models of career-connected learning
The Department of Labor’s Talent Strategy emphasizes that the workforce system must invest “earlier and more intentionally in building career pathways, starting in middle school with exposure to real occupations and extending through high school and beyond.” STEM Next’s Career Connected Learning Framework goes even further, beginning in elementary school to build early awareness and foundational skills before deepening career engagement through middle and high school. The framework outlines three stages:
- Career Awareness (Elementary School): Youth are introduced to the idea of careers and see examples of STEM jobs in their communities, while building durable skills like teamwork, communication, and goal setting.
- Career Exploration (Middle School): Youth dig deeper through hands-on projects, career interest tools, and exposure to real professionals, helping them connect their strengths to real career possibilities.
- Career Preparation (High School): Youth test their interests through internships, leadership roles, and mentorship, gaining clarity and confidence about their postsecondary path.
To scale this framework for widespread practice, STEM Next has launched the Working Together for Tomorrow Community of Practice, a national initiative supporting statewide afterschool networks in training programs, building local industry connections, and implementing the framework at scale.
Demonstrated activation on a national scale
Afterschool programs already have the reach and infrastructure to scale quickly when opportunities arise. We saw this in action with the Million Girls Moonshot, which we launched in 2020 with an ambitious goal to foster an engineering mindset in one million girls by 2025. In just four years, we reached 2.6 million girls—and just as many boys. That success is proof that when partners are aligned around a clear vision and equipped with the right tools, we can scale access to high-quality STEM and help millions of young people build skills, confidence, and a clearer path to STEM careers.
The Institute for a STEM Ready America builds on that success, revolutionizing how we prepare youth for the future of work and ensuring they are ready to lead and thrive in an increasingly STEM-driven world. It:
- Leverages afterschool and summer programs as powerful platforms for hands-on STEM learning.
- Guides programs in embedding career exploration and navigation into youth experiences
- Aligns today’s learning with tomorrow’s high-opportunity fields
- Brings together educators, industry, and communities to expand access to career-connected STEM learning nationwide.
For example, as a core initiative of the Institute for a STEM Ready America, The Exploring Career Connections in STEM (EC²) project integrates out-of-school time STEM programs into workforce development systems to prepare young people for the future of work with hands-on career exploration.
The pilot project is a partnership with our afterschool network affiliates in Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, and South Dakota, with a model designed for nationwide expansion. It creates a new model for STEM career readiness that addresses critical national needs:
- The rapidly growing demand for skilled STEM workers across the United States
- Stronger pathways for youth to explore and gain skills for high-demand, high-wage careers in fields like biotech, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing.
This work demonstrates how afterschool programs are already advancing the Talent Strategy. The EC² initiative is supported by a $3,299,928 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration.
The Talent Strategy calls for a system that begins earlier, works across sectors, and evolves with the demands of an AI-driven workforce. Out-of-school time programs can play a critical role in making that vision a reality for millions of young people.
To meet this need, STEM Next is launching Opportunity AI, a new effort to support states in integrating AI learning into afterschool and summer programs. The project will pair curated curriculum, professional development, and career-connected experiences to test scalable approaches for AI learning in OST.
The path forward
The Talent Strategy calls for deeper employer involvement in education. Afterschool and summer programs are already making that vision a reality through co-design with employers, scalable models, and nationally demonstrated impact.
From local programs engaging STEM professionals as mentors, to statewide networks scaling career-connected learning frameworks, the out-of-school time field is already delivering what the workforce system needs: early exposure, real-world relevance, and access to opportunity.
What’s needed now is recognition and investment. Afterschool and summer programs must be treated as essential to the infrastructure that is preparing the next generation to lead in a rapidly changing, innovation-driven economy. At STEM Next, we’re working with afterschool and summer program leaders across the country to meet this common goal through the Institute for a STEM Ready America, scaling what works in afterschool STEM and welcoming partners to join us in shaping a STEM-ready generation.