About Us
Overview
Helping students succeed
Jobs for Delaware Graduates, Inc. (JDG) is a school-to-work transitional program, dedicated to helping youth reach academic and economic success. Our program exposes middle and high school students to emerging careers and higher levels of education and training. Students who participate in JDG receive weekly in-class instruction, credit towards graduation, leadership development, community service, personal enrichment, career coaching, and access to internships, job shadowing, and work experiences.
Success
JDG works with guidance counselors and school administrators to identify students who may be in jeopardy and/or demonstrate a need for increased support. Teachers work with students to develop a plan of action, backed by and community and financial resources to mitigate barriers and increase success.
With more than forty years in school-to-work transitional services, JDG has delivered consistent, compelling results in helping Delaware’s youth stay in school through graduation, pursue post-secondary education, and secure an array of employment opportunities. In fact, JDG is the only nonprofit in Delaware offering a continuum of support that helps students transition from middle school, through high school graduation, and on to post-secondary education, advanced training, military enlistment, or employment.
Preparing Young People for Jobs
JDG was designed in 1978 by five working groups in Delaware, drawn from business, educational, workforce, labor union, and community leadership. The organization’s purpose was to simultaneously address Delaware’s unemployment and dropout rates. Together, public and private sector leaders developed the JDG model.
Our mission is to enable students to achieve academic, career, personal and social success.
More than 94,000 young people have participated in JDG programs since their inception, and more than 250 employers rely on JDG for producing enthusiastic, well-prepared, and effective employees.
THE JDG Story
Leading the way since 1978
Jobs for Delaware Graduates (JDG) was organized in 1978 as a private, non-profit corporation designed to prepare highly at-risk high school seniors for transition from school to work. School personnel and the Delaware Private Industry Council encouraged JDG to expand the program to include students in grades 9, 10 and 11. As a result, JDG established a partnership with James H. Groves High Schools in 1989 to provide services to out-of-school youth in a classroom setting. In 1992, JDG piloted a five-year program for students in grades 9-12 that included a year of work placement and training after graduation.
In 2005, JDG expanded once again, partnering with the Delaware Department of Labor to provide individualized services to out-of-school youth, ages 16-21 years old, from Kent and Sussex counties. In 2010, JDG established a pilot program for middle schools that provided students in grades 7 and 8 with the leadership skills to effect positive behavior, to improve academic achievement. and ultimately, to ensure each student successfully transitions to grade 9. The middle school program has now been implemented in nine schools throughout Delaware.
History
40+ Years
Nationally Replicated Model
Leader
Jobs for America's Graduates
The JAG mission is to help young people of great promise succeed both in school and on the job, leading to productive and rewarding careers.
JAG graduates consistently achieve outstanding results, including a 95.7% graduation rate. JAG graduates are 230% more likely to be employed full-time compared to their peers, and twice as likely to go to college.
JDG programs provide much-needed education and workforce-preparation services to some of the most at-risk middle- and high-school students in Delaware and teaches academic, life, and job skills to help break the cycle of poverty and unemployment in underrepresented populations.”
Learn more about JDG’s success by reading our most recent Annual Report.
Ask Question
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ
Learn more about Jobs for Delaware Graduates by reading the FAQs below.
Jobs for Delaware Graduates serves students in 23 high schools and 12 middle schools throughout Delaware. See a complete list of participating schools.
Typically ranging in age from 12-18, students are referred to JDG by guidance counselors, teachers, parents, and peers and siblings who have been through the program. They are identified based on barriers such as academic status, absenteeism, and economic background.
Teachers work with students to develop and achieve personal, academic and career goals. Depending upon grade, participants receive:
- skill and job interest assessments
- approved career pathways and cooperative work experiences
- course completion assistance to bring students to grade level
- remediation
- job skill development/shadowing experiences
- opportunities to participate in the Delaware Career Association Student Leadership Program
- job placement opportunities
- follow-up services after graduation
- school dropout prevention/recovery
JDG's overall strategic approach focuses on providing a compounding curriculum that begins with foundational concepts offered in middle school and progresses through advanced concepts in high school. JDG offers targeted programs to middle school students that address career-based learning, personal development, leadership building, and civic responsibility. The high school program prepares students to pursue higher education or trade programs, enter the workforce, or join the military. The competency-driven curriculum is an approved pathway and includes strategies for personal and professional development.
Our students learn soft skills and industry-specific skills and gain workplace exposure so they have a better understanding and skill base in their field, become more marketable, and have a higher chance for success in the working world. Providing students with such education and focused learning environments, tools, and technologies better prepares them for the workforce or for college by leveling the playing field with job/college applicant peers.
Additional components of JDG programs that focus on financial concepts, entrepreneurship, and life skills as well as identity, diversity, equity, inclusion, social action, and volunteerism help fuel economic mobility, community development and social justice.
Learn more about JDG programs.
