By Jasmine McGee and Adriel Garcia

In this blog, we explore four best practices for partner and practitioner engagement that can transform economic mobility initiatives.

Advancing economic mobility—a person’s ability to improve their economic status over time—is a complex challenge. To make meaningful and systemic changes that enhance communities with economic mobility, coordinated efforts across multiple sectors are pivotal. For any initiative or project aimed at enhancing economic mobility to succeed, the involvement of key partners and practitioners is not just beneficial—it’s essential. Years of practitioner experience makes it clear that effective engagement can lead to increased buy-in, higher productivity, and a more significant impact.

Key interest holders often include local government officials who can influence policy and funding decisions, workforce development agencies that connect individuals with job opportunities, and higher education institutions that provide the necessary training and education for upward mobility. Additionally, community organizations play a vital role in reaching and supporting marginalized populations, while employers and industry leaders can offer insights into labor market needs and create pathways for career advancement. Engaging these diverse partners ensures that economic mobility initiatives are informed by a wide range of perspectives and are better positioned to address the multifaceted challenges of improving economic outcomes for individuals and communities. This blog post explores four best practices for partner and practitioner engagement that can transform economic mobility initiatives.

1. Establish Open Communication Channels

The bedrock of any successful project is transparent, two-way communication. When partners and practitioners are kept informed and encouraged to share their insights, the project benefits from diverse perspectives, which leads to more robust outcomes. Open communication builds trust and keeps everyone aligned with the project’s goals. It ensures that interest holders are active participants in the project’s success.

To do this, development of California’s Master Plan for Career Education included a comprehensive website where participants provided input in addition to a series of statewide in-person and online convenings. A core element of the Master Plan’s mission is to ensure that every voice is heard, establishing multiple channels for feedback and engagement. Commitment to open channels of communication ensures that the Master Plan remains responsive, inclusive, and aligned with the evolving needs of California’s diverse workforce.

ACTION: When gathering partners and practitioners, initiatives should consider their communication channels. Ensure project leaders receive regular communication updates, including weekly emails, monthly meetings, an open forum, and access to fill out a continuous feedback form to gauge whether efforts or tactics need to shift. Consider other modes of communication when including larger audiences, such as websites or social media. This transparent approach allows all parties to stay informed and address issues promptly. By practicing open communication, potential problems will be resolved quickly, and the project can stay on track.

2. Practice Collaborative Decision-Making

Engaging partners and practitioners in decision-making processes creates a sense of shared ownership and commitment. When people feel that their voices are heard, they are more likely to support and contribute to the project. Collaborative decision-making can lead to more innovative and effective solutions. When partners and practitioners are involved in the process, they bring diverse perspectives that can significantly improve the project’s impact.

Collaborative decision-making can look like the following:

• shared vision statement drafting: Build opportunities for interest holders to collaborate on draft visions and goals until it resonates with all parties involved.
• development of a communication strategy: Create a plan that articulates the shared vision of all interest holders and keeps it at the forefront of project activities.
• transparent documentation: Establish clear, accessible documentation that captures the shared vision, making it available to all for reference and guidance.

The California REACH project, a project WestEd supports by providing technical assistance to the Success Center for California Community Colleges, exemplifies the essence of collaborative decision-making in advancing economic mobility. California REACH gathers a dynamic coalition of institutional leaders, support staff, faculty, and partners from industry and academia. The project champions the importance of focusing attention on meaningful collaboration by inviting interest holders into the shared visioning process. This strategic approach ensures that a breadth of expertise and perspectives are at the heart of the project, driving decisions that are both innovative and reflective of California’s diverse educational and workforce needs.

ACTION: When planning projects and initiatives, form an advisory board that includes a host of institutional administration and support staff, faculty, employers, and academic partners. This board should actively participate in decision-making processes to ensure that the project aligns with community needs and can lead to sustainable, long-term economic benefits. It is crucial to ensure that individuals being brought together have the necessary bandwidth to contribute effectively, ensuring that team members are not stretched too thin. This is sometimes the difference between increased participant buy-in and true collaboration.

3. Training and Capacity Building

Empowering partners and practitioners with the necessary skills is a key strategy for maintaining engagement and ensuring the project’s success. When people are equipped with the tools they need, they are more likely to contribute effectively. By investing in their capacity building, initiatives can ensure that participants are not only prepared to contribute now but are also motivated to stay involved over the long term.

The United Domestic Workers Adult Demonstration, a project WestEd supports through their partnership with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, focuses on building capacity for both emerging and established best practices in adult education through a monthly Community of Practice. This collaborative space is dedicated to professional development and skill enhancement, providing educators and practitioners with the tools and knowledge necessary to establish or expand resources and course offerings for adult learners. By identifying and addressing gaps in participants with knowledge and capabilities, the initiative cultivates an environment where continuous and collective learning is a central priority. This strategic approach has created an opportunity to leverage the collective expertise of the community to drive innovation, address challenges, and sustain impact while also establishing a strong foundation of support and mentorship among the practitioners.

ACTION: Identify gaps in the skills and knowledge of key participants, such as educators or practitioners. Offer targeted training sessions, communities of practice, and skill-based workshops. Enhancing the skills of the team not only improves program outcomes but also boosts confidence and engagement among participants, leading to sustained impact.

4. Measure and Celebrate Success

To maintain momentum and morale, it is vital to regularly measure progress and celebrate successes, even small ones. Recognizing achievements keeps partners and practitioners motivated and committed to the project’s goals. It’s important to acknowledge the hard work of partners and practitioners because this recognition can significantly raise morale and keep the project on track.

A great example of this is a Regional K16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program recipient that uses the “In the News” section of its website to showcase local and regional accomplishments. By highlighting these achievements, whether it’s the completion of a significant milestone or the success of a community event, the collaborative not only recognizes the hard work of its partners and practitioners but also keeps everyone engaged and motivated. This public acknowledgment serves as a powerful tool to boost morale, reinforce commitment to the project’s goals, and demonstrate the tangible impact of collective efforts, ensuring that the initiative stays on track and continues to inspire those involved.

ACTION: Establish a system to track progress, and celebrate every achievement, big or small. Publicly recognize participants, institutions, work groups, and regional successes.

Enhancing economic mobility is not a task that can be tackled in isolation. It requires the collective efforts of various sectors, with partners and practitioners playing crucial roles in driving success. When these best practices are implemented effectively, the possibility for transformative systems work is within reach.

Economic mobility initiatives or projects must consider how these best practices can be thoughtfully integrated into their approaches and strategies. By actively applying these engagement strategies, initiatives cultivate stronger relationships with key interest holders, promote a more collaborative environment, and significantly enhance impact and sustainability.

Take the next step in advancing your efforts—visit the Center for Economic Mobility website to learn more about effective engagement strategies and resources to support your initiatives. Together, we can build pathways to greater economic opportunity and success.

Jasmine McGee is a Research Associate II at WestEd. Her areas of expertise include data–informed approaches and trends, student–centered equity strategies, a strong understanding of K16 education data systems, and a long history of serving historically disadvantaged populations. Jasmine received a BA in psychology and African American studies from University of California, Davis and an MA in counseling from St. Mary’s College of California.

Adriel Garcia is a Program Associate at WestEd focusing on Economic Mobility, Postsecondary Education, and Workforce Systems. He plays a key role in supporting educational data, developing dashboards, and systematizing education and workforce systems. Adriel holds a BA in psychology social behavior, education, with a minor in management from University of California, Irvine.

By Rachel Antrobus and Alexandra Lozanoff

In this blog, we share five foundational strategies for building high-quality K-16 pathways in the context of common challenges and emerging possibilities.

In today’s dynamic job market, students need coherent career-focused pathways from high school to college and employment, commonly called K-16 pathways. When education systems aren’t connected, students have to fill in the gap. Educators, industry leaders, and philanthropic organizations widely recognize the importance of creating seamless, supportive, and student-centered K-16 pathways as an ideal model for academic and career development. Yet, pathways are challenging to fund, develop, and sustain. 

K-16 pathways are broadly defined as clear, sequenced coursework and supplemental activities across multiple education segments (i.e., high school, community colleges, and 4-year institutions). These pathways allow learners to explore their interests, identify education and career goals, shift into different pathways using their transferable interests and competencies, and earn academic credentials—all while accumulating skills and qualifications that align with jobs.

The Importance of K-16 Pathways

K-16 pathways are a key strategy for expanding opportunity. Without explicit connections between education segments, the onus is on students to navigate from high school to college and careers on their own. For students with resources and cultural capital, the gaps are typically navigated successfully and seen as an opportunity to explore interests without the pressure of translating education choices into a career. However, for low-income, first-generation college students, the disconnects between education and careers too often translates into difficulties navigating the gaps between high school, college, and career and often results in a lost connection with postsecondary institutions. Education systems and employers can work together to address the structural factors that get in the way of equitable outcomes and provide first-generation college students with the holistic support needed to successfully transition from high school to college and career. 

In California, several initiatives, such as the Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program, are providing resources and establishing minimum requirements for K-16 pathways. WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility is supporting the Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program by providing deep technical assistance, including developing implementation plans, facilitating K-16 pathway convenings, and advising K-16 Collaboratives’ leadership teams. The promising practices, strong partnerships, and innovative approaches underway across California–paired with state-level policy changes—offer the promise of meaningful progress toward coherent, career-focused pathways for all students. 

Recommendations

1. Next-step options within pathways: High schools provide at least one community college dual enrollment course, and community colleges include a course that is transferable to a 4-year institution. 

One way to bridge gaps between systems is to ensure students get early access to the next step in their education journeys. For example, high school students can take college courses through dual enrollment, and students in community college can take classes that count toward a 4-year degree. 

To create coherent options for students, high schools, community colleges, and universities need to work together to identify which courses students should be encouraged to take, ensure educators with appropriate disciplinary and youth development backgrounds are recruited to teach the classes, and put systems in place to help students register for courses. They also need to iron out misaligned system requirements such as seat-time minutes, teacher qualifications, and providing sufficient room in school schedules. 

2. Employer commitment: All levels of educational programs align with employment opportunities, including opportunities for work as students progress along a pathway. 

Building pathways from high school to college and career requires coordination between education and industry. However, the two sectors often operate in silos, with little ongoing communication or collaboration. This divide can result in a mismatch between the skills that students are taught in school and the skills that are needed in the workforce. If K-16 pathways are to be successful, employers need to commit to advising the pathway curriculum and providing real-world experiences, including work-based learning, and education partners need to have a depth of understanding and the ability to integrate in-demand skills.

Current structures are not well suited for deep engagement between education and industry. Employers may not be engaged until a curriculum has already been developed, and access to employers is often based on individual relationships. By developing regional structures for employer engagement focused on specific industry strategies, a broader range of partners can be engaged to develop action plans around work-based learning opportunities, hiring, and program design. Exemplar partnerships, such as the California Transit Works! statewide consortium, can serve as a model for developing and scaling partnerships between employees, unions, and educators to build worker-driven curricula, training programs, peer mentoring, and registered apprenticeships. 

3. Work-based learning: All education segments (K–12, community colleges, 4-year institutions) provide experience-based opportunities that are valued by employers. 

When students gain real-world experience through internships, job shadowing, and project-based learning, they gain confidence early in their academic journeys and are better able to find the career that is right for them. Unfortunately, high schools and colleges lack funding and infrastructure to offer robust, equitable, hands-on training and real-world experience for all students. Work-based learning is one of the most difficult elements to scale, but in every successful scenario, industry partners meaningfully invest by helping students gain real-world experience and making their workplaces “student-ready.” Education partners can support this commitment by providing employers with strategies for welcoming and supporting a diverse group of students. 

Both education partners and employers require funding and staff capacity to support students as they enter new environments, gain new skills, and process their experiences in ways that prepare them for career decision-making and enable them to secure future opportunities. In addition, on-the-ground strategies should be supported by reexamining policies that create barriers, such as fingerprinting requirements or age-restrictions. 

4. Student-facing pathway maps: All education institutions provide roadmaps to students that clearly describe course sequences, required levels of education, and employment opportunities. 

To be effective, K-16 pathways need to make educational journeys and career opportunities clear for students and families. Given that students have so many education options, educators can help clarify what types of jobs are available and the different possible pathways to prepare for those occupations. It is critical that, rather than existing in a silo, the roadmaps are instead incorporated into students’ academic lives through the classroom, college preparation, family engagement, advising, and cocurricular activities.

The Los Angeles Regional Consortium is addressing this challenge by making local labor market data available to everyone through an open-source data tool. Practitioners can use this tool to identify high-wage, high-demand jobs available in their region, determine the programs and certifications that prepare students for these jobs, and the pinpoint the skills students need to succeed in their chosen field. Instructors, counselors, student support professionals, and admissions officers can incorporate this information into recruitment materials, counseling, and lesson plans. 

5. Articulation agreements: Community college and 4-year institutions ensure that courses are accepted for transfer to shorten time to employment.

Agreements on course articulation are required to maximize the opportunity for community college students to transfer to 4-year institutions. Articulation agreements often are negotiated between individual institutions and require the engagement of administrators, faculty, and academic senates. As a result, students who are considering more than one major or transfer institution are faced with the daunting task of understanding and comparing the many possible combinations of transferable courses and pathways.

Creating articulated transfer pathways that share common general education and major requirements can be a game changer for students’ journeys through K-16 pathways. In California, Assembly Bill 928 and the corresponding Associate Degree for Transfer Intersegmental Implementation Committee outlined a range of recommendations for state-level action to support more equitable transfer, including creating Associate Degrees for Transfer that are recognized by all public 4-year institutions, guaranteeing admissions for transfer students, streamlining transfer pathways in STEM, and reengaging students who completed transfer requirements but have yet to enroll in a 4-year institution. In the meantime, Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives are working to explore new articulation agreements while cocreating solutions to address equity gaps within current transfer pathways.

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Creating K-16 pathways that allow students to reach living wage jobs and respond to workforce demands requires close attention to structures, information flow, and regulations. As California is demonstrating, establishing regional collaboratives that include K-12, community colleges, 4-year institutions, and employers allows practitioners to shift the burden of navigating these systems away from students. 

Rachel Antrobus, EdD is Director of Intersegmental Projects in WestEd’s Economic Mobility, Postsecondary, and Workforce Systems content area where she provides technical assistance to the field, focused on improving college and career pathways within K-16.

Alexandra Lozanoff is a Senior Project Manager in WestEd’s Economic Mobility, Postsecondary, and Workforce Systems content area where she is responsible for designing professional development for postsecondary and workforce development clients.

By Sterling Smith

In this blog, we discuss strategies for bridging the gap between prevalent, low-wage jobs and good jobs that address quality of life and earnings. The blog also highlights a new initiative that aims to address barriers adult learners face while putting them on pathways to good jobs.

The job market can mystify job seekers and educators, but ask either and they can likely talk at length about the current real estate market. Both the job market and real estate market impact our daily lives and have experienced significant shifts over the past few decades, driven by technological advancements, changing demographics, and socioeconomic factors. By examining these parallels, we can better understand how the job market has changed and how this impacts job seekers and educators.

What Makes a Job a Good Job

Much of the current conversation about the real estate market is dominated by the unavailability of affordable housing, just as many individuals in today’s job market struggle with the lack of good jobs. While searching for both jobs and housing, many people primarily consider financials—although dollars and cents are far from the exclusive factor when choosing either. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Good Jobs Initiative has a framework of eight principles that comprise a good job. Outside of providing workers with a living wage, the framework includes

• skills and career advancement;
• organizational culture;
• empowerment and representation;
• diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility;
• benefits; and
• recruitment and hiring.

These principles have direct impacts for job seekers and educators and are important for holistically evaluating what job seekers may want from an employer. In the trucking industry, for example, a study in the journal of Workplace Health & Safety found job turnover was related to issues such as job expectations, long hours away from home, and lack of benefits, among others. While jobs have different requirements and people have different preferences, for educators and job seekers, a more comprehensive approach toward evaluating career opportunities and educational pathways enables a more efficient labor market and reduces time and costs for students.     

Living wages, however, dominate the discussion around what makes a good job. The Living Wage Calculator, developed by Amy K. Glasimer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, defines a living wage as the following:

“What one full-time worker must earn on an hourly basis to help cover the cost of their family’s minimum basic needs where they live while still being self-sufficient.”

The basic needs referenced in the MIT Living Wage calculator include childcare, food, health care, housing, internet and mobile, transportation, civic engagement, other necessities, and income and payroll taxes. Living wages vary based on location and family structure, highlighting the need for both job seekers and practitioners to consider the regional labor market information and living wage data in decision-making. 

Take Los Angeles County, for example: in a family of four with two working adults, each adult needs to earn an hourly wage of $33.24 or $69,139 annually. In comparison, for the same family in Fresno County, each adult needs to earn an hourly wage of $26.79 or $55,723 annually.

Where have all the good jobs gone?

The shortage of good jobs can be likened to the shortage of affordable housing. A number of confounding factors have led to what is called the polarization of the labor market, where middle wage jobs have been eclipsed by growth of high-wage and low-wage jobs. This polarization is reflected in the makeup of our economy. On the low end of the pay scale is the leisure and hospitality industry, which accounted for about 6 percent of jobs in the United States at the beginning of 1950. By the beginning of 2024, that figure had nearly doubled (to 11%). At the higher end of the pay scale, professional and business services saw an even larger gain (from 7% to 15%). Meanwhile, middle skills jobs like manufacturing dropped to a quarter of their prior figures (from 30% to 8%).

Economists like David Autor, Lawrence Katz, and Melissa Kearney argue that the polarization of the labor market can be partially understood through technological advances and the outsourcing of jobs internationally. Other factors have impacted good jobs, including wage stagnation, where workers’ wages remain little changed when accounting for inflation. Wage stagnation has particularly impacted workers in the lower- and middle-levels of the job market. This has coincided with the precipitous decline in the share of workers belonging to a union, which fell by half between 1983 and 2023 (from 20% to 10%), even though studies on unions show that union members have increased benefits and a wage premium between 10 percent and 15 percent. On the bright side, both wage stagnation and union membership have seen some gains recently, for example, union membership increased by approximately 200,000 in 2022.  

How can education systems design bridges across the polarized job market?

Home ownership can feel out of touch for so many, just as securing a good job can be. A college degree continues to be one of the most reliable pathways to securing a good job, with bachelor’s degree graduates typically earning $1.2 million more over their lifetime than workers with a high school diploma. However, if individuals don’t have funds for a down payment on a home or the savings to cover the cost of tuition and living expenses for several years, the only option is to take out sizable loans. A quarter of people over the age of 25 have attended college but have not earned a bachelor’s degree. If colleges want to help more adults cross the chasm between prevalent, low-pay jobs to better options, they will have to redesign the way they engage their communities. For example, to help adults navigate to jobs that better meet their goals and dreams, colleges need to understand the characteristics of jobs in their region and the specific skills and needs of people in their communities. This understanding enables colleges to work proactively to support students across the institution, from advising to wraparound services. Colleges will also need to identify ways to help adults move efficiently through training options to reduce the out-of-pocket and opportunity costs of going back to school. 

WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility is helping turn these ideas into action by supporting a new initiative that is jointly offered by the California Community Colleges (CCC) and the United Domestic Workers (UDW). Domestic workers provide in-home support to children, the elderly, and people who are disabled. These jobs require long hours and physical strength but do not pay a living wage. Domestic workers who are not part of a union often lack health care and do not have consistent schedules, two key elements of what makes a good job. The UDW members who are participating in the initiative are predominantly women of color over the age of 50, many of whom are not fluent in English. 

To help UDW members identify academic programs that will help them make progress toward their goals, WestEd examined jobs that require similar skills, do not require a bachelor’s degree, and continued to be in high demand through both the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. This information was shared with the colleges participating in the initiative at daylong design sessions where they learned about their regional labor markets, the characteristics of UDW members who live near their colleges, and their interests. Educators identified related programs at their colleges and determined the types of supports that would foster success, like offering English as a Second Language courses that teach medical terminology. Importantly, educators moved beyond traditional labor market analyses that look narrowly at projected job openings and wage thresholds. For example, for some UDW members, preparing for a medical assisting position may be an attractive option. While the job does not pay as well as health care positions that require more training, it will provide a consistent schedule, daytime working hours, health care benefits, and the opportunity to sit while working. This work is being done with a data driven and proactive approach to provide support for members, where UDW and the colleges are coordinating on barriers, including transportation, computer and internet access, and course materials.    

Balancing Jobs, Education Pathways, and People

Solving the affordable housing crisis requires innovative solutions that address the supply of housing and the barriers to building and financing. Improving access to good jobs requires equally innovative solutions that build pipelines to good jobs and remove barriers for job seekers. Targeted programs done in partnership with community organizations, such as the UDW and CCC partnership, serve as one example for engaging historically underserved populations and adult learners. Not only are these solutions impactful for individuals, they are key to preserving American competitiveness and productivity. For researchers and educators, solving the good jobs crisis requires data-informed approaches that go beyond our historical understanding of good jobs and are reflective of the populations we strive to reach.

Sterling Smith is a Senior Research Associate at WestEd. Sterling specializes in the intersection of postsecondary education and labor market outcomes. His work includes helping institutions understand how to design and implement programs that are reflective of their regional economy and using a data-driven approach to institutional planning. Sterling is a first-generation college graduate passionate about economic mobility for learners and reducing barriers for underserved individuals.

By Phyllis Pistorino, Svetlana Darche, and Kerry Sherman Headington

In this blog post, we explain the elements and perceived positive impacts of work-based learning, and explore an exciting professional development course that WestEd created for community college faculty to facilitate work-based learning in their courses.

Many of us can remember a time in school when we thought, “When will I ever use this?” Today’s students are no different: a recent Wiley study found that a substantial number of students feel disengaged because they don’t see the connections between coursework and their real lives. Students seek not only relevant, real-world experiences, but also learning that is dynamic and interactive. Additionally, students are concerned with finding a future career that they enjoy, while providing them with a meaningful way to contribute to the world.

What can educators do to foster engagement and a sense of purpose in students? Work-based learning (WBL) is an instructional strategy that supports all students’ learning while preparing them for future careers. The benefits of WBL are myriad: students can build social capital; develop “soft skills,” also known as 21st Century Skills; discover their career interests; begin to define their roles in society; and, most importantly, gain real-world experience. All this can boost their confidence and make them more valuable to employers, ultimately jumpstarting students’ economic mobility, or a person’s ability to earn a living wage and improve their economic status over the course of their lifetime. Both K-12 and college students benefit from WBL, as research shows that starting WBL from an early age provides better outcomes for postsecondary success and career readiness.

Employers also benefit by helping to shape their future workforce. Recent surveys have found that employers are seeking stronger 21st Century Skills in their new hires, namely problem solving, critical thinking, professionalism, communication skills, and adaptability, among others. Employers are increasingly seeking candidates with proven work experience for entry-level jobs; those with internships and other work experience will beat out candidates with only credentials. This movement, called “skills-based hiring,” highlights just how important contextual learning strategies like WBL are as more companies move toward this practice.

What Is WBL? Learning About, Through, and For Work

WBL operates on a continuum ranging from basic career awareness activities, such as guest speakers and job shadowing, to more involved experiences, such as internships, apprenticeships, and paid work placements. It requires a direct connection to curriculum and instruction, as well as first-hand engagement with the tasks of a given career field. While WBL used to be mainly associated with career and technical education (CTE), it’s now prevalent in both secondary and postsecondary institutions, for all students, across disciplines. The following continuum image illustrates the different levels of WBL and how students may progress through WBL activities to build career awareness, engage in career interactions, and participate in career training experiences.

As depicted in the WBL continuum image, students begin to explore careers by learning about work through brief encounters with employers and workplaces. At the second level, students engage deeply with professionals and employers, learning through work, involving the production of goods or services, which supports and expands their classroom learning. The final level, career training experiences, allows students to learn for work, by applying their knowledge in preparation for employment in specific occupations. This process can be cyclical over a lifetime, as students transition from schooling into their first jobs, and then into new occupations and careers as their life progresses.

Beginning with career awareness and exploration allows students to ease into their understanding of careers. An important aspect of WBL is that it allows students to visualize themselves at work. Students need reassurance from people already working in the profession that they can “belong” in that profession. Exposure to work culture and norms, such as how employees behave at work or what they talk about during downtime, can help students understand how they might fit in and bring their own identities and ideas to work.

WBL Supports Equity

Students who participate in WBL gain valuable mentorship and supervision from education and professional leaders, building connections that they may not otherwise have access to, thereby expanding horizons and opening doors to future opportunities that support economic mobility. Students are able to learn and demonstrate their skills and talents in ways that are not always possible in class. Research shows that students who participate in quality WBL are more likely than their peers to get a college-level job and stay in college-level jobs. While unemployment levels for Black and Hispanic or Latino young people remain high, particularly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the good news is that student participation in WBL coursework is high among the same groups, providing these students with equitable access to opportunities and connections.

WBL in Action: Example From San Diego and Imperial Counties, California

WBL implemented at scale calls for a shift from the traditional notion of “education or work” to a more integrated “education and work” model—breaking down long-standing silos between classroom learning and the world of work. This shift requires significant and dynamic relationship building between educators and industry. The San Diego & Imperial Counties Regional Consortium, comprising 10 community colleges, embarked on this transformational work in partnership with WestEd. Over many meetings and communities of practice, the Consortium

• developed a shared language among all parties
• tracked progress by counting WBL opportunities that students were given
• hired liaisons to build relationships with employers 
• hired WBL coordinators to work with faculty and students
• created an online WBL Professional Development Course for faculty to learn how to integrate WBL into their courses.

One of the Consortium’s greater goals was to make career planning “inescapable” for students. While working with WestEd, leaders in the region recognized that bringing WBL into the classroom is the only effective way to reach all students, and to do that, educators need support. To provide that support, educators throughout the region are invited to participate in the WBL Professional Development Course, which is offered three times a year and administered by WestEd. The WBL course uses an asynchronous cohort-based model on the Canvas platform, where participants review content, engage in discussion forums, and participate in knowledge checks, with the final product being a WBL Lesson Plan in their chosen discipline. Participants exit the course with the lesson plan and a toolbox of downloadable resources they can use with students.

As of Spring 2024, nearly 175 instructors and staff in the region have completed the WBL Professional Development Course. Assuming a course completer leads at least two courses of 30 students in a calendar year, it’s estimated that nearly 10,500 students have been exposed to WBL in just one year! Lesson plans submitted by course completers range from hosting guest speakers in an English as a Second Language course, to completing service learning with local nonprofits for a geography course, to participating in an industry-judged simulated workplace “restaurant war” in a culinary arts course. Instructors who completed the course were enthusiastic—in the end-of-course survey, 100% said they would recommend the course to a colleague, and many realized the benefits of integrating WBL into their instruction.

Watch this video to learn more about the WBL Professional Development Course created for the San Diego & Imperial Counties Regional Consortium.

How You Can Develop WBL Opportunities

WestEd offers expertise in work-based and experiential learning to support learners’ needs in the rapidly changing world. We assist with planning and system development, development of resources and tools, and design and delivery of professional learning, as well as data collection and evaluation processes. We work at the state level, with regional groups, and with colleges and K-12 school districts. The WBL Professional Development Course can be adapted for any region.

Do you want students to engage in real-world experiences and develop the 21st Century Skills employers are increasingly seeking? Are you interested in implementing WBL strategies? Contact the WestEd team at [email protected].

Phyllis Pistorino serves as a Program Associate at WestEd, where her efforts are instrumental in advancing projects across adult education, postsecondary education, and workforce development. Her educational journey began at community college, an experience that shaped her conviction in their critical role in transforming students’ lives and uplifting communities.

Svetlana Darche is a Senior Research Associate and Director of Career Education at WestEd. She is responsible for co-leading work in career-related education, workforce development, and adult education, including evaluation, policy research, needs assessment, technical assistance, and materials and tool development.

Kerry Sherman Headington is an education consultant working with WestEd and other organizations at the K-12 and college levels. She works on education research, development, and service projects at the local and state levels and is a Certified Linked Learning Coach. Her passion is in guiding educators and students in experiential and work-based learning as a means to college and career success.

By Randal K. Tillery and Kathy Booth, Co-Directors of the Center for Economic Mobility

A year ago, WestEd launched the Center for Economic Mobility. We were in good company. A number of organizations that focus on education, workforce development, and public policy have been sharpening their focus on whether people are able to attain living-wage jobs, with the social, health, and community benefits that become possible with financial security. This shared awareness is an opportunity to strengthen economic mobility pathways.

In this blog post, we reflect on the work the Center has done with our partners over the past year to ensure better economic outcomes for all learners.

Identifying Drivers of Economic Mobility

While education is a powerful social elevator, many factors constrain who accesses and benefits from learning opportunities. The Center is partnering with others to explore the drivers of economic mobility and to identify structures that create gaps in opportunity and reinforce income inequality. Our goal is to generate new information that can move national conversations from anecdote to evidence. For example, leveraging data generated through a partnership with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, we demonstrated the low rate of transition from adult education to community college and then briefed national policymakers to clarify strategies for stronger outcomes. Working with the University of Michigan, we documented the earnings implications of taking a few career-related courses and then led statewide planning sessions in Ohio and Colorado to inform efforts to support adult learners.

Bridging Policy and Practice

Sustainable change requires working from both the bottom and the top, so that the vision of policymakers is informed by those closer to the ground, and the daily work of practitioners advances far-reaching aspirations. Recently, in an effort to make access to education more affordable, California passed legislation that incentivized all students to complete financial aid applications. Given that few high schools have the staff or the expertise to help students navigate these complex forms, the Center partnered with the state, advocates, and educators to post resources and self-directed learning opportunities that will help counselors and administrators meet this ambitious goal. We are now leveraging this same framework to develop a knowledge-sharing website for the state of Nevada that will support K–12 institutions to improve their college and career readiness outcomes.

Operationalizing Systems Change

Given the fractured and short-term nature of funding in education and workforce development, innovation is often focused on pilot projects, while most learners must continue to navigate the status quo. Therefore, we are working with the National Science Foundation to address the structures that prevent historically marginalized populations from pursuing the STEM pathways that are more likely to provide living-wage jobs. By helping the National Science Foundation grantees quantify the facets of systems change and focus on shared measures of progress, we are building bridges between disparate efforts and identifying ways to insulate structural change during periods of funding instability. We are also applying this approach to support the scaling of programs that focus on college-going rates for underrepresented students.

Changing the Conversation

As skepticism grows about the value of a college education, despite overwhelming evidence that this is the best avenue to a living wage, it is imperative that we clarify how education supports—and debt impedes—economic mobility. Therefore, the Center is partnering with experts like the Georgetown Center for Education and the Workforce and the Centers of Excellence for Labor Market Information to clarify the importance of attending to prevailing wages and the skills of learners when aligning educational opportunities to employment demand. In addition, we are working with the National Association of Systems Heads to engage educators on new metrics for postsecondary attainment, debt, and social mobility. These new metrics clarify how educators can redesign higher education so that low-income students can attain greater economic stability and opportunity.

Join Us!

As the Center enters our 2nd year, we are focused on expanding our work with others. You can access and share the free resources we have posted on our website or reach out to us to explore new ideas. Together, we can grow an enduring movement for economic mobility that is centered on learners, focused on the root causes of inequity, and advancing institutional change.