Constructing the Transition: Connecting Youth Aging Out of Foster Care with Skilled Trades

Abstract

This thesis examines the relationship between two persistent challenges: the barriers to stable employment faced by former foster youth as they transition out of the child welfare system and the growing labor shortage in skilled trades industries. While both issues have been widely studied and addressed through separate policy and programmatic interventions, these two problems are rarely considered in relation to one another. This study argues that these challenges should be understood as interconnected and that aligning them presents an opportunity to improve employment outcomes for former foster youth while addressing labor demand in key industries. Drawing on a combination of literature review and fieldwork, including interviews with professionals working with young adults transitioning from foster care and exposure to apprenticeship-based workforce models, this study analyzes both the structural barriers faced by transition-aged youth and the operational constraints that shape employer participation in workforce development. The findings suggest that existing systems provide fragmented support that fails to translate into sustained employment, while employers face financial, administrative, and retention-related barriers that limit their ability to invest in training new workers through apprenticeship programs. In response, this thesis develops a model for an intermediary organization that connects transition-aged foster youth with employer-led apprenticeship programs, concluding that the most effective and scalable outcome can be achieved through the strategic alignment of existing workforce opportunities. Rather than restructuring apprenticeship programs themselves, the program integrates exposure, preparation, placement, and retention into a continuous pathway designed to align the needs of both participants and employers. From this program overview, policy recommendations follow, emphasizing the importance of public funding, institutional coordination, and employer incentives in supporting implementation. By reframing former foster youth’s employment challenges alongside labor market demand, this thesis demonstrates how apprenticeship programs can simultaneously address youth instability and labor shortages.