Healthcare Pathway Redesign that Removes Barriers for Young Adults
WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility is partnering with regional and state leaders in Los Angeles to redesign education-to-career pathways alongside the partners who operate them—improving Opportunity Youth access to and persistence in healthcare careers while generating tools and models that can be scaled across California.
The Challenge
Los Angeles County is home to more than 123,000 Opportunity Youth—young people ages 16–24 who are not enrolled in school and not working, often due to foster care involvement, justice system contact, housing instability, disability, economic hardship, or other factors. While LA County has a strong ecosystem of education, workforce, and youth-serving organizations, pathways into living-wage careers remain fragmented and difficult to navigate.
Too often, pathways exist on paper but break down in practice—during enrollment, onboarding, advising, work-based learning access, or transitions from training to employment. These breakdowns disproportionately affect young people who cannot afford delays, unpaid requirements, or unclear navigation.
Regional partners needed support to:
- Identify barriers such as documentation requirements, enrollment delays, advising gaps, or transitioning to full time employment
- Map and redesign real-world pathways, not idealized “paper pathways” that reflect young people’s realities
- Test small but high-impact changes that reduce time, cost, and confusion for students
- Improve coordination across colleges, workforce boards, employers, and community organizations
How We’re Taking Action
This project focuses on redesigning education-to-career pathways alongside the partners who operate and implement them. Rather than launching new programs, WestEd works with colleges, workforce boards, community organizations, employers, and Opportunity Youth to identify and fix specific breakdowns in existing systems that prevent young people from reaching living-wage careers—starting with healthcare.
Working in partnership with UNITE-LA and aligned with Horizons 32K, The Alliance for Children’s Rights, and Corporation for a Skilled Workforce, WestEd convenes and supports cross-sector demonstration teams that work together to redesign real-world healthcare pathways. These teams include education providers, workforce boards, community-based organizations, employers, and Opportunity Youth themselves.
Healthcare was selected as the initial sector due to urgent labor demand, strong regional readiness, and high interest among young people. Demonstration teams focus on occupations such as Medical Assistant, Community Health Worker, EKG Technician, Pharmacy Technician, and Emergency Medical Services.
Teams engage in short, structured design and implementation sprints to:
- Map real-world pathways (not just “paper pathways”)
- Identify barriers (ie. documentation, medical clearance, enrollment, advising or employer transitions)
- Test small but high-impact changes that reduce time, cost, and confusion for students
- Strengthen career navigation, earn-and-learn models, and transitions to employment
- Center youth voice and real-time feedback to inform pathway redesign
The emphasis is not on creating new pathways, but on redesigning how existing pathways function across institutions so they are navigable, timely, and viable for Opportunity Youth. By focusing on specific, fixable breakdowns—rather than attempting wholesale reform—the project generates practical learning that can unlock broader system improvements.