Propel America

Year Founded: 2019

Propel America is a national non-profit that equips 18-26-year-olds from underserved communities with free training, industry-recognized credentials, and accelerated pathways to employment through direct partnerships with mission-aligned employers.

Propel addresses a broken workforce system that too often fails both young adults and healthcare employers, sidelining talented individuals from entering healthcare careers and contributing to critical workforce shortages that threaten community health. Propel’s fellowship provides young adults with hands-on training, individualized and culturally responsive coaching, and externships with employer partners that result in guaranteed interviews for full-time roles in allied health careers. Fellows earn credentials that can be applied to future education and career advancement.

Propel integrates with 8 employer partners to offer traditional and earn-and-learn pathways in five regions across the country. Propel is currently piloting medical apprenticeships, beyond our existing medical assistant and sterile processing technician training programs, that provide young people with increased and quicker entry points to gainful employment. Propel has enrolled over 1,200 young adults to date and is on track to enroll 500+ annually by 2028; Propel has a ＞60% hiring rate. A recent alumni survey found that participants’ wages increased by an average of 30% pre- to post-fellowship and 74% of those surveyed remained employed over a year after placement. Propel America is an alumnus of New Profit’s 2020 Postsecondary Innovation for Equity I Catalyze cohort.