Jobs for the Future (JFF) Labs

Climate Innovations Intern

OPEN TO RETURNING YALE GRADUATE/PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL AND RETURNING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

About Jobs for the Future, JFF Labs, and Climate Resilient Employees for a Sustainable Future (CREST):

Jobs for the Future (JFF) drives transformation of the American workforce and education systems to achieve equitable economic advancement for all.

JFFLabs drives transformation of the workforce & education system through insights, incubation, and investing. Educators, workforce professionals, and entrepreneurs have innovative solutions but need support developing them, proof that what they're doing works, and a connection to capital to help them succeed. Investors seek guidance in identifying high-impact opportunities and promising solutions that generate results for learners and workers, produce financial outcomes, and bolster the economy. JFFLabs bridges these communities and drives innovation in education and workforce systems through market insights, incubating solutions, and investing in promising companies.  

Climate-Resilient Employees for a Sustainable Tomorrow (CREST) is a five-year, $25 million career preparation and reskilling initiative of the Ares Foundation that aims to close the gap between the demand for a skilled workforce for green jobs and the number of people prepared for these opportunities. Working with our partners and local communities, we can deepen our impact, harness new opportunities and help create a green, resilient future that benefits generations to come.  

In collaboration with Yale’s Planetary Solutions in Clean Energy Summer Internship and Fellowship Program, this internship receives additional support from JFF’s Summer Internship Program, which encompasses:  

  • Onboarding and Orientation Process to the Program 
  • Weekly Cohort Meetings: Engage with fellow JFF interns in weekly meetings designed for professional development and fostering a collaborative learning environment. 
  • Mentorship: Benefit from mentorship provided by a JFF colleague, offering guidance throughout the internship. 
  • Guest Speaker Series: Attend a series of talks by Subject Matter experts, both internal and external, sharing insights into their leadership journeys. 
  • Career Development Workshops: Participate in workshops aimed at enhancing your career development skills 

The opportunity: 

The summer intern will engage in a variety of research and content development tasks related to the nature of green jobs, green skills, green knowledge, the development of concepts such as green wealth, and emerging solutions to support economic mobility and resilience for workers and learners through this transformation. The summer intern may author and contribute to publications as a part of this effort, may participate in events, network across entrepreneurs, educators, and workforce leaders in this space, and may leverage systems thinking and analytical approaches to develop a foundational connection across these two bodies of work, one focused on hands-on experience in research and analytics and the other focused on innovation and application.  

Internship may include the following activities:   

  • Evaluation: Our team would ask our intern to assist in survey development and coding additional mixed-methods CREST data. Ultimately, the intern would act as an additional, non-biased, thought partner in the analytical stage of our phase II work to ensure our internal biases are being checked appropriately.  The intern would gain valuable transferable research and analytics skills that can be applied in their academic and professional routes. This type of on-the-ground, policy-centered collaborative research experience is hard to come by as an undergraduate or master's-level student and is highly coveted for any student looking to go into policy and/or research work.      
  • Market Scan: The CREST Financial Success Market Scan aims to identify fintech and financial services solutions that serve workers in emerging green jobs and adjacent job markets. Following on CREST work and the first market scan on job training that identified opportunities for good-paying green jobs, this scan will highlight tools and solutions that contribute to individual wealth-building and financial success. Financial tools, services, and institutions that show promise for facilitating meaningful financial mobility through providing access to capital and capital accumulation for all will be uplifted to promote more of these kinds of market opportunities. Our team would ask our intern to help support the drafting of 3-5 Rapid Insight articles utilizing the CREST Financial Success Market Scan. The drafting of Rapid Insights would include developing different types of content (video, web, social) expanding on key themes, worker voice, innovators, and recommendations surfaced.  

The intern will report to: The Evaluation and Market Scan Teams 

Helpful skills and attributes of applicants for this project opportunity include:  

  • A consulting mindset with the ability to pull out key insights and know where to find information. 
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills to effectively convey findings and insights.  
  • Excitement about publishing and coauthoring reports and about what we are discovering through our research. 
  • Interest in research, learning through dialogue, and quickly sharing what we are learning. 
  • Understanding of market analysis and research is helpful but not required.  

Location:

This is a remote position.

How to apply:

Please submit:

  • Your resume
  • A cover letter (no more than 2 pages) to include:
    • Your interest in this project
    • Any relevant background/experience
    • Why you believe this work is important
    • Please share any important identity or identities you hold. Note that this is completely optional. Examples of identities that may be important to you might include (but are not limited to): gender, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, generation, education level, cultural identity, occupation, sexuality, family structure, housing status, mental health (health status/ability), incarceration status, institution affiliation, primary language, religion, immigration status, medical history, first-generation, income/ socio-economic class, quality of education, occupation, and/or parent's education 

Please submit the above directly to JFF Labs via this link. You must also send an email to cbey.yale.edu letting us know you have applied to this opportunity….please attach any files you send to JFF (i.e. cover letter and resume). Please put “Yale Planetary Solutions Internship Program in Clean Energy/JFF” in the subject line.

Application deadline is 11:59 PM ET on Feb. 19, 2024