The National Fund for Workforce Solutions and Jobs for the Future, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, launched the Youth/Industry Partnership Initiative (YIPI), to learn how employer-led industry partnerships could addressing the crisis of youth unemployment—17 percent of American youth (age 16-24) are neither in school or working—while helping employers find skilled workers in high-demand sectors. YIPI explored how industry partnerships can be harnessed to create employment pathways aligned with employer needs that offer a clear sequence of education coursework, training credentials, and job placement in high-demand sectors to generate improved outcomes for older youth and benefits to participating employers. YIPI supported three National Fund collaboratives to investigate this work—in Boston, Hartford, and Seattle—and the key lesson that emerged is the importance of a collective, place-based effort driven by employers and industry partnerships, and also relying on community providers and education/training providers, to build high-quality employer-connected pathways.