GPN Speaker Series: Dr. Joel Vargas (Jobs for the Future)

Welcome to the GPN Speaker Series at the University of Pennsylvania! Join us for an exciting online event featuring Dr. Joel Vargas from Jobs for the Future.

In their 2021 paper, The Big Blur, a team of experts from Jobs for the Future (JFF), a Boston-based nonprofit focused on accelerating the alignment, transformation, and reimagination of the American workforce and education systems, proposed an entirely new way to organize learning for older adolescents. By blurring the lines between the now separate public systems of K–12 schooling, postsecondary education, and training, and the world of work, youth would be much better positioned to make a successful first transition from learning to earning.

Dr. Joel Vargas, a lead author of the paper, will discuss what has led JFF to call for such bold change, its efforts to enact this agenda, and what the organization is learning.