Building Pathways Together: NYEC and Veolia Launch National Youth Champion Employer Council

Building meaningful career pathways for young people isn’t a question of opportunity — it’s a question of alignment. Across the country, millions of jobs remain open while millions of young people remain disconnected from school and work. Bridging that gap requires stronger coordination between employers, community-based organizations, training providers, and workforce systems.

Now, a landmark national partnership is putting that alignment into action. NYEC and Veolia — a global leader in environmental services — have officially launched a new national partnership and an Employer Council, creating a structured pathway connecting opportunity youth to careers in the water, waste, and energy sectors. The announcement has garnered significant media attention, reflecting growing bipartisan momentum to strengthen workforce systems and expand skills-based pathways for young people.

At NYEC, employer engagement is central to our Youth Champion Communities (YCC) initiative. We help communities strengthen employer partnerships, align training with real workforce demand, and build systems that support long-term career pathways — not just placement. The Veolia partnership is a direct expression of this approach at national scale.

Veolia operates across water, waste management, and energy services — sectors with urgent workforce needs and a genuine commitment to community benefit. The partnership creates structured connections between Veolia’s hiring pipeline and the network of youth-serving organizations, workforce intermediaries, and training providers that NYEC supports across the country.

The new Youth Champion Employer Council takes this further: a formal, multi-employer body that brings together companies committed to hiring and developing opportunity youth, sharing what works, and aligning their practices with the workforce ecosystem around them. It reflects a core belief driving this work — that when employers are not just consumers of talent but active architects of the pathway, outcomes improve for everyone.

This focus was also front and center at the 2026 NYEC Annual Forum in Houston, where an entire conference track was dedicated to employer-driven solutions and expanding access to opportunity for young people. Across two days, sessions explored how to deepen employer engagement, strengthen partnerships, and better align systems — culminating in a panel discussion that brought together employers, workforce leaders, and data experts.

The conversation at the Forum reinforced what NYEC sees across YCC communities: progress happens when collaboration is intentional, continuous, and grounded in real-world experience.