Grads of Life

Companies

Grads of Life is a national initiative that catalyzes market demand for Opportunity Youth (ages 16-24) by helping to transform employer perceptions and hiring practices. Grads of Life places an innovative focus on the demand side of the talent marketplace, harnessing the power of the private sector to create employment pathways for Opportunity Youth nationwide.

The crux of Grads of Life’s work is to shift employer perceptions of Opportunity Youth from social liabilities to economic assets and help hiring professionals to broaden and diversify their talent pools to include these skilled, motivated young adults. The current media campaign is themed “More Than What’s on Paper,” and is driven by the insight that hiring managers spend an average of 7 seconds reviewing a resume. Given Opportunity Youth do not usually have a strong traditional resume, the campaign designed 7 Second Resumes, short seven second videos in which Opportunity Youth highlight unique skills and qualities they have acquired through life experiences that add value to them as employees. 7 Second Resumes have proven to be a unique way of capturing the practical business value that Opportunity Youth offer employers who are looking to build a 21st-century workforce.

Grads of Life is working to build a future in which a functioning talent marketplace means that there are no longer 6 million Opportunity Youth without employment while 7 million middle-skills jobs go unfilled. For this to happen, all employers must see Opportunity Youth as a key component of their talent strategy and build talent pipelines into their companies that support the hiring, training and development of these young adults.