Google has partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) to expand access to mentoring for young people across the US, as AI, disappearing entry-level roles and widening opportunity gaps reshape traditional routes into work.
BBBSA has announced a new collaboration with Google aimed at expanding access to mentoring and strengthening career opportunities for young people across the United States. The partnership will support BBBSA’s ambition to establish mentoring as essential social infrastructure, helping young people build confidence, skills, connections and pathways towards education and employment.
The initiative comes at a critical moment for younger generations. More than 10 million young people in the US currently lack access to a mentor, according to BBBSA, while rapid technological change is raising questions about how young people will gain the early career experience, networks and opportunities traditionally provided by entry-level jobs.
Google’s support will help BBBSA improve its technology systems, data and tools to create more high-quality and long-lasting matches between young people and mentors. It will also support research, public dialogue and policies designed to encourage mentoring and volunteering. “Google’s support and collaboration reflect a shared belief in mentorship as essential societal infrastructure,” said Artis Stevens, President and CEO of BBBSA.
“By strengthening our operational foundation and programmatic reach, Google is helping to ensure more young people have access to positive adult relationships that build confidence, open doors to opportunity, and drive long-term economic and social mobility.”
MENTORING AS ESSENTIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Founded in 1904, BBBSA is the largest and most experienced youth mentoring organisation in the US, serving more than 5,000 communities across all 50 states. Its model centres on one-to-one relationships between young people and adult mentors, designed to improve educational outcomes, confidence, aspirations and relationships.
BBBSA says its own data shows mentored young people are more likely to become engaged citizens and graduate from high school with a plan to pursue higher education or meaningful careers. Research has also linked quality mentoring relationships with improved educational outcomes, greater career confidence and earnings potential, reduced involvement in risky behaviours and stronger communities.
“Mentorship is one of the most effective ways to empower the next generation,” said Utaukwa Allen, Global Head of Economic and Community Development for the Office of Strategic Partnerships at Google. “By supporting BBBSA, Google is helping to facilitate meaningful human connection and creating real-world opportunities for young people to develop their skills and voices.”
The idea of mentoring as infrastructure is significant. Physical infrastructure connects people to places and economic activity. Digital infrastructure connects people with information. Mentoring can provide another kind of connection – to knowledge, confidence, professional networks and opportunities that young people may otherwise struggle to access. That becomes particularly important for those who do not inherit those connections through family, education or socioeconomic background.
HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE FIND THEIR VOICE
The partnership will also support career exploration through BBBSA’s Little Reporters Bureau, which gives aspiring young journalists and storytellers hands-on media experience, professional mentoring and opportunities to tell stories from their communities on local and national platforms. YouTube will provide strategic platform and educational support for the programme.
The initiative demonstrates a broader role for mentoring beyond conventional careers advice. Giving young people opportunities to create, communicate and have their perspectives heard can help build confidence alongside practical workplace and digital skills. But the partnership is particularly timely because the routes through which young people traditionally develop those capabilities are changing.
AI IS RESHAPING THE FIRST RUNG OF THE CAREER LADDER
Across major economies, concerns are growing about what happens to the traditional first rung of the career ladder as artificial intelligence automates tasks previously undertaken by junior employees. In the US, one in five companies had stopped hiring entry-level workers because of AI.
More recent evidence suggests employees themselves are seeing the shift. In July, two-thirds of workers surveyed said they believed AI was reducing entry-level hiring, while 43% believed AI was already eliminating entry-level positions at their organisations.
The implications extend well beyond the US. In Britain, more than one million young people are now not in education, employment or training, prompting warnings of a potential “lost generation” as entry-level opportunities disappear. Meanwhile, across Asia-Pacific, where AI adoption has accelerated rapidly, research has revealed widespread concern among workers about the technology’s potential impact on jobs.
Within the US, expectations of significant disruption are widespread too. Majorities across all 50 states expect AI to fundamentally reshape their jobs within five years. Taken together, these trends point to a much bigger challenge than simply ensuring young people have the technical skills to use AI.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ENTRY-LEVEL JOBS DISAPPEAR?
Entry-level employment has traditionally provided far more than a salary. It is where many people learn how organisations operate, develop professional judgement, make mistakes, gain workplace confidence and build relationships with more experienced colleagues.
If AI reduces or significantly changes those roles, younger workers risk losing some of those informal learning opportunities. That potentially makes access to mentors, sponsors and professional networks even more important.
Although the Google-BBBSA initiative is focused on young people in the US, the underlying challenge is increasingly international. As technological change coincides with youth unemployment and shrinking entry-level opportunities, policymakers and employers face an urgent question: how will the next generation gain the experience and social capital required to enter and progress through the labour market?
FROM A SKILLS GAP TO AN OPPORTUNITY GAP
Businesses frequently talk about skills shortages and whether younger generations have the capabilities required for tomorrow’s jobs. But the emerging challenge may be as much an opportunity gap as a skills gap.
Young people need opportunities to apply their skills, understand how workplaces function, build professional relationships and demonstrate what they can do. Access to those opportunities, however, has never been equally distributed.
Young people whose parents, relatives or existing networks can provide careers advice, introductions, work experience and professional contacts may be better positioned to navigate a changing labour market. Those without those connections risk falling further behind.
That concern extends well beyond the US. As Fair Play Talks highlighted for Social Mobility Day 2026, Britain’s growing opportunity gap should serve as a wake-up call for employers, with socioeconomic background continuing to influence access to education, professional networks, jobs and career progression.
Combined with the fact that more than one million young people in Britain are already outside education, employment or training as entry-level opportunities shrink, the findings reinforce why access to career networks and trusted guidance matters. US labour-market evidence points to inequalities there too. Fair Play Talks reported earlier this year that functional unemployment in the US had risen to 24.7%, with women and Black workers among those particularly affected.
Mentoring cannot replace jobs, apprenticeships, good education or effective labour-market policy. Nor can it solve structural inequality on its own. But it can give people access to something that becomes increasingly valuable when established career pathways are disrupted: another person’s experience, knowledge, encouragement and networks.
MENTORING CAN HELP WIDEN ACCESS TO OPPORTUNITY
Fair Play Talks has long highlighted the role structured mentoring can play in improving access and progression for people who remain underrepresented in workplaces and leadership. Our previous feature on why representation matters explored how the right mentoring programme can help diversify leadership ranks, particularly when mentoring is accompanied by sponsorship and genuine access to opportunities.
Google itself has previously invested in this approach. In 2023, Google partnered with Creative Equals on a mentor-supported scholarship programme designed to upskill underrepresented talent, combining access to professional training with mentoring to help participants develop skills and progress their careers. The latest BBBSA partnership therefore builds on a broader model in which technical learning is combined with human support, networks and access to opportunity. Similar approaches are being used across industries and communities.
In sustainability, a mentoring programme for people of colour doubled the number of places available to help improve career progression. Elsewhere, programmes covered by Fair Play Talks have sought to accelerate diversity in sport through mentoring and empower women working in the automotive industry.
Evidence has also demonstrated mentoring’s potential within education and technical professions. Research from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found effective mentoring could help improve diversity and inclusion in STEMM. The settings differ, but the principle is consistent: Talent may be widely distributed. Opportunity, networks and social capital are not.
FROM MENTORING TO CAREER OPPORTUNITY
The Google-BBBSA collaboration also illustrates why effective mentoring increasingly needs to be connected with tangible career experiences. The Little Reporters Bureau does not simply pair young people with adults. It provides participants with opportunities to develop storytelling skills, gain practical experience and have their work seen.
That matters because mentoring works best when advice and encouragement connect people with real opportunities to learn and progress. The distinction between mentoring and sponsorship is also important. Mentors can offer guidance, perspective and confidence. Sponsors go further by actively advocating for people, making introductions and opening access to opportunities. For young people who lack established professional networks, both can help make career pathways more visible and accessible.
WHAT EMPLOYERS CAN DO NEXT
If traditional entry-level roles continue to change, businesses may need to rethink how they create pathways into employment rather than simply reducing junior headcount. Structured mentoring and sponsorship can form part of that response, alongside apprenticeships, paid internships, work experience, job shadowing, early-career programmes and partnerships with schools, universities and community organisations.
Employers should also examine who has access to those opportunities. Programmes designed to widen participation can help reach young people who may not already have professional networks or family connections into particular industries.
Businesses can also encourage employees to volunteer as mentors, provide skills-based support to youth organisations and use their technology, expertise and platforms to strengthen community programmes – as Google’s support for BBBSA seeks to do. Crucially, mentoring should not be viewed simply as corporate volunteering. For organisations concerned about future skills shortages, talent pipelines and succession planning, helping younger generations build workplace capabilities is an investment in the workforce they will eventually need.
WHY THIS MATTERS FOR RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS
The significance of the Google and Big Brothers Big Sisters collaboration goes beyond one corporate-community partnership. It raises a broader question for responsible businesses – how can organisations help ensure that opportunity is not determined by background, connections or circumstance?
Skills and qualifications matter, but they are only part of the equation. Young people also need access to people who can help them understand unfamiliar industries, navigate professional environments, build confidence, recognise opportunities and imagine careers they may never previously have considered.
That is where mentoring can make a difference. For employers, investment in the future workforce cannot begin only when a vacancy appears. It requires organisations to engage earlier through mentoring, apprenticeships, education partnerships, work experience and other pathways that connect young people with the world of work.
There is a wider social-impact case too. Creating fairer workplaces cannot begin at the office door. Who gains access to mentors, networks, skills, confidence and early career opportunities long before recruitment can shape who eventually enters organisations, who progresses and who reaches leadership.
That makes initiatives such as the Google-BBBSA partnership relevant not only to youth development, but to wider conversations about social mobility, inclusive growth and responsible business. For companies, widening access to opportunity can also strengthen future talent pipelines. Helping young people build the relationships, experience and confidence needed to enter different professions can broaden the pool of talent from which organisations recruit and, over time, help create more representative workplaces and leadership teams.
Mentoring alone cannot overcome every structural barrier. But a trusted relationship can provide knowledge, encouragement, connections and access that might otherwise be missing. And perhaps that is the bigger lesson from this partnership – opportunity should not depend on already knowing the right people.
Responsible businesses have an opportunity to help build the bridges that allow more young people to develop their potential, access meaningful work and progress. Because sometimes opening the door to opportunity starts with something remarkably simple – someone taking the time to show you where the door is – and believing you belong on the other side.
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