Summer is nearing its end. In most school districts, students have returned, or will soon head back, to their classrooms to start a new academic year.
One trend we are reading about in high school classrooms is the introduction of career-connected learning, a practice that introduces students to different careers through partnerships with individual professionals, businesses, or industries. Remember career day? Career-connected learning is that, but on a larger and more formalized scale.
High schools all over the country are embracing it and there is a reason: it benefits both learners and employers.
Bottom-up solutions help students discover aptitudes and develop skills
School leaders in New York City were among the first to bring career-connected learning opportunities to students. As Education Strategy Group CEO Matt Gandal wrote this summer in Forbes, the “dynamic local economy and vast range of employers make New York City an optimal place for building and scaling high-quality career pathways for students; and over the past few years, the city’s leaders have embraced that work and tackled it head-on.”
For example, FutureReadyNYC, launched in 2022, is a multi-year initiative through which participating schools can choose to build one of four career pathways: business, education, healthcare, or technology. Once the school establishes a program, students can explore a range of careers in that field, take classes aligned to a job that interests them, and develop 21st century skills, including digital and financial literacy.
In Albuquerque, N.M., meanwhile, students can participate in the Rio Grande High School’s Agriculture and Nutrition Internship Summer Program, which allows student of all backgrounds to explore agricultural careers while learning life skills that are generally not taught in the classroom.
In some instances, employers are driving high schools to adopt these programs. In fact, career-connected learning is especially popular in industries where employers say they are having a challenging time finding qualified workers. As Bain & Co. explained, 10 healthcare systems have leveraged a $250 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to partner with local school districts to create new, or newly reimagined, healthcare-focused high schools.
Career-connected learning is mutually beneficial
Bain & Company concludes that, for both students and employers, the career-connected learning “study-and-work” approach is much more beneficial than the “study-then-work” model.
“Many find the opportunity to combine classroom learning with real-world work experience a better match for how they learn, allowing [students] to dream bigger and have a fair shot at achieving those dreams,” Bain & Co. wrote. “The payoff for employers is a steady stream of young, motivated job candidates prepared to succeed in the jobs” employers need to fill.
Catalyze is another organization that has been providing seed money to career-connected learning programs. (The Charles Koch Foundation supports the Catalyze Challenge.) In an informal survey of SXSW EDU participants earlier this year, Catalyze found 95% of attendees said career-connected learning can help all learners, regardless of age. Participants also felt career-connected learning programs help educators contextualize and accelerate learning.
“[C]areer-connected learning is a catalyst that can prepare learners to thrive in the modern world of work — first, by bridging the gap between student interest and industry need, and second, by introducing young people to fulfilling pathways that connect passion to career success,” an April 2024 Catalyze blog post concludes. “Career-connected learning also helps students to recognize and foster a greater sense of purpose in their lives.”