For immediate release
Contact:JanelleDuray
Senior Vice President, Jobs for America’sGraduates
703-706-9645
Governor John Bel Edwards, Chair of the Board of Directors of Jobs for America’s Graduates, and Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky, Vice Chair, announced today that Jobs for America’s Graduates achieved the best results in its 39-year history, in serving some of the nation’s most challenged youth achieve education and employment success.
JAG is one of the nation’s largest and most successful organizations in serving students who face significant life challenges and/or have experienced trauma. As the school year opens, JAG operates in 37 states in 1,400 locations, serving 75,000 plus youth.
JAG provided 12 full months of follow-up college placement and career pathway support services, ending on May 31, 2019, for the JAG Class of 2018 to help. The results for the Class of 2018 are the highest ever achieved over JAG’s 39-year history, with data collected from JAG programs across 35 states, including the most rural and most urban areas, from American Indian Reservations to the deepest inner city areas.
Results for the JAG Class of 2018:
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A 95.81% graduation rate – the highest ever in the 39-year history of Jobs for America’s Graduates, while high school graduation requirements have become more demanding. Since 1980, JAG has never had an overall graduation rate lower than90%.
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An employment rate of 65% – also the highest in JAG’s history, while serving the part of the population least likely to be employed. The 65% rate that JAG students achieved is twice the rate of non-JAG students in the samedemographic.
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A full-time engagement rate of 90% (We define full-time engagement as working, in higher education, in the military, or some combination, on a full-time basis – at least 40 hours per week.) Also a record high forJAG.
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40% were enrolled in higher education – at a time when overall college enrollments were down by 500,000 from the year before and 1.5 million fewer than three yearsago.
Research conducted by Drexel University’s Center for Labor Markets and Policy reported last year that students who participate in JAG are 230% more likely to secure full-time jobs than all 18- to 20-year-olds in the general population – not only the more challenged population that JAG serves.
Nineteen thousand employers across the country regularly hire the young people of Jobs for America’s Graduates because they have mastered JAG’s 37 Employability Competencies, are enthusiastic about working, are customer-service oriented, and desire to build good jobs into good careers.
JAG Board Chair, Governor John Bel Edwards, has determined to reach at least 200 schools in Louisiana with the JAG program. He notes, “In Louisiana and around the country, Jobs for America’s Graduates is, once again, delivering compelling results for the young people and the 19,000 employers of our nation. In Louisiana we’ve doubled the scale of JAG to 128 schools. In the future, we intend to grow the program further, creating additional opportunity for our Louisiana students.”
JAG Board Chair, Governor Matt Bevin said, “Jobs for America’s Graduates is one of America’s great success stories! JAG demonstrates, with convincing results, the great opportunity that exists in our economy, to help hundreds of thousands of young people to successfully join the workforce. Here in Kentucky, we have grown the JAG program to 70 schools from only 8 when I first took office. The results for the participants have been phenomenal. We are on our way to 100 schools!”
Twelve Governors serve on the JAG Board of Directors – more than any other organization in the country – along with a cadre of dedicated C-suite executives, making JAG a true public- private partnership.
To learn more, visit www.jag.org and follow us on social media @JAGNational