Year Up is an American nonprofit organization focused on education and job skills. The organization provides students without a 4- year bachelor's degree with resources, training and corporate internships with the aim of improving their job prospects and social mobility.
 | |
| Established | 2000 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Gerald Chertavian |
| Type | 501(c)(3) Nonprofit |
| Legal status | 501(c)(3) |
| Purpose | Education |
| Headquarters | Boston |
| Location |
|
Revenue (2022) | $179.3 million[1] |
Students (2022[2]) | 4,000[2] |
| Website | yearup |
History
The organization was founded in Boston in 2000 by Gerald Chertavian,[3] who worked as a banker on Wall Street and later co-founded a software company.[4]
In June 2002, Year Up's first class of students graduated its one-year program.[5] The program had started in Boston in 2001 with 22 students.[6]
In 2011, Year Up established a Puget Sound program, based in downtown Seattle.[3] It opened a program in Phoenix in 2014.[7]
As of 2020, the organization worked with more than 250 companies that provided funding for the program and took on interns.[8]
In 2021, the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the US Department of Health and Human Services (OPRE) published a report of a study it had sponsored, evaluating Year Up's longer term impact via a five-year randomized controlled trial. The study found that the Year Up program had a statistically significant impact on earnings.[9] In 2022, the OPRE reported that six years after completing the Year Up program, past participants had an income 30% higher than a control group of non-participants.[2]
As of 2022, approximately 4,000 students per year participated in Year Up's programs.[2]
Programs
Year Up's program includes job skills training and internships in a corporate environment,[9] for underserved students who have a high school diploma or equivalent, but have not received a college degree.[2][10][4][11][12][13] As of 2018, the program was aimed at young people and accepted participants aged between 18 and 24 years old.[14]
The organization also runs a program providing materials and resources to other training providers working with students, including community colleges.[15]
Funding and partnerships
The majority of funding for Year Up is provided by its corporate partners.[9] Additional funding is provided by sponsorships, donations and public funding, the latter of which represented 2% of the organization's budget as of 2018.[16] In 2022, Google announced it was working with Year Up and two other job training programs to provide funding and course content.[11] Also in 2022, Year Up received a grant of $3 million from the private equity firm Blackstone Inc.[15]