Technology & Asset Management Fellowship

Youth economic advancement

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

According to Education Strategy Group (ESG), "Youth apprenticeships provide an opportunity for policymakers, employers, and educators to grow the population of skilled workers and keep pace with the demands of an advanced economy." Despite understanding the critical role that youth apprenticeship plays in the modern world, few opportunities exist for opportunity youth. Current PreK-12 and higher education systems are doing their best to keep up with the quickly evolving landscape of the knowledge required of students to secure living wage jobs, and this is where partnerships with private companies such as ourselves become crucial. Our fellowship program bridges the gap between traditional apprenticeship programs and the rapidly evolving technology advances in the private sector and the opportunities it brings. Our focus geographies of South and East Los Angeles show lower levels of both household income and educational attainment in these areas, indicating a need for greater support.

The Technology and Asset Management Fellowship (TAM) is a young adult fellowship and prize competition designed as a career exploration opportunity for participants. Currently spanning three months across two phases, this program is a talent development and mentoring initiative focused on emerging tech hubs such as South Los Angeles and open to current undergraduate and graduate students, along with competitive non-student applicants aged 16-24 (aka Opportunity Youth). By bridging the gap between varying educational opportunities across geographies and industry needs, the fellowship offers youth resume-building access to explore career paths in high-paying fields such as venture capital, private equity, investment banking, technology entrepreneurship, economic development, real estate development, and more. In a phased approach, fellows participate in a weekly educational speaker series in Phase 1 and a prized research competition in Phase 2. By operating virtually we can access a national network of CEOs and Investors willing to share with our fellows and we can be complementary to existing mentoring programs given our niche. By participating in this free, virtual program, it serves as a bridge to other opportunities giving them greater competitiveness in the job market. With a focus on technology, our program can quickly adapt adding additional programs based on industry needs and reach broadly across the ecosystem to engage youth via potential partnerships.

We envision the South and Eastside of Los Angeles being just as known for tech competitiveness as the Westside known as "Silicon Beach". With a growing population in these areas due to more affordability, we must ensure current residents can be competitive in both the local and global workforce. With industry-led initiatives such as this fellowship program, participating youth with have the opportunity to compete right where they are, allowing Los Angeles County to retain its vibrant population while moving them up the socioeconomic ladder. If successful, Los Angeles County will have a more prepared and diverse workforce, solidifying our spot as the 4th-ranked tech ecosystem and potentially advancing it with additional contributors. This will all contribute to economic growth, quality of life, and stability in the region, particularly for young Angelenos in lower-income areas.

We just completed our pilot cohort and produced a report with full metrics which we added in the optional addendum. We are currently publicly measuring acceptance, attendance and engagement, and graduation metrics across the cohort which are highly competitive with industry standards. We also capture data on fellows’ understanding of the materials, their rating of the program via a Net Promoter Score, the number of fellows that opt to advance from one phase to another, the number of prize awards to fellows, and the demographics of those accepted, all of which are made public. Internally we track the number of university or nonprofit partners we reach out to and our ability to engage them as partners as we aim to be collaborative in the space and reach the greatest number of potential fellows for participation. In the future, we hope to engage industry partners to engage fellows on longer-term industry projects as we move towards an apprenticeship model in year two onwards.