Publication

INTRODUCTION

It is the end of February in Indianapolis. I arrive at a newly developed building complex that houses Ascend Indiana — a nonprofit intermediary organization that connects Hoosiers to in-demand careers and regional employers to skilled talent, fostering cross-sector partnerships, building capacity, and developing insights that enable system-level change to transform the career trajectory of youth and adults in the community. 

As part of their efforts, Ascend partners with EmployIndy, the local workforce board, to offer the Modern Apprenticeship Program (MAP). MAP is a three-year program designed to prepare Central Indiana high school students for the workforce with paid, hands-on experiences that complement their traditional academic coursework. Apprentices start in their junior year and pursue jobs in growing fields such as business, advanced manufacturing, and IT. Afterward, they can continue to college or jump right into their career.

While visiting Ascend, I had the pleasure of meeting three of these youth apprentices. They all are extremely impressive, going to school full-time while also advancing in their apprenticeship program — with positions working in human resources, talent acquisition, and business management. High school students earning college credits, a wage, and critical job skills; this type of opportunity was not available to me and my peers in high school.

In fact, most young people in our country still don’t have access to high-quality career learning experiences like MAP apprentices. This is a result of our nation’s education system over-emphasizing college prep coursework and advising, while career preparation programs are overlooked, under-resourced, and even discouraged by federal and state policy. While we know that college — specifically a bachelor’s degree — often leads to higher long-term earnings, most Americans still do not earn degrees, with many forgoing college altogether, and many — 39 million to be exact — enrolling in college but not completing a degree. They are left with student debt and without a credential of value.

This trend is expected to worsen as young people increasingly question the career and financial benefits of traditional higher education. As a result, students aren’t attending, or are postponing their college plans altogether, which is apparent in the sharp declines in college enrollment among recent high school graduates. Rather than just focusing on college prep in their academic curriculum, students seem to be looking for ways to infuse career relevance into their education.

Career education does exist in schools today, for example, through our nation’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) system. CTE funds most of career learning in K-12 and these programs seek to provide students with academic and technical skills and the guidance needed to make informed career choices. Data shows that CTE concentrators, or students that have completed at least two CTE courses in a pathway, have a 94% high school graduation rate, which is 8% points higher than the national average. Additionally, CTE concentrators are employed full-time at higher rates and earn more than non-concentrators throughout their career. Yet even with promising outcomes, one in four high schools don’t offer CTE at all and out of roughly 15 million public high school students across the country, only 3 million are CTE concentrators.

It is clear the CTE system has its limitations. Funding is a big one. The federal government spends over $57 billion annually on our nation’s secondary schools. This investment does not include the majority of public funds for K-12 which come from the state and local level or the $122 billion in relief from the American Rescue Plan Act. Of all that, the CTE system receives roughly $1.3 billion annually for both youth and adult career education. As a result, only $600 million of total CTE funds goes toward K-12 to support career learning and experiences.

Compared to other public resources for secondary education, that truly is a drop in the bucket. School districts trying to provide career learning opportunities cite insufficient funding as the biggest barrier to offering these options in high school. However, funding constraints are not the only challenge. Inconsistent state support and the stigma that often attaches to career-oriented coursework and its students result in programs of widely varying quality and accessibility. Additionally, logistical hurdles, like recruiting and retaining qualified instructors, inflexible scheduling of programming, and finding willing employers make it especially hard to offer a critical element of CTE: work-based learning.

Work-based learning programs, like MAP in Indianapolis, can include apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, internships, and on-the-job training, among other options. These opportunities help young people gain the knowledge, skills, and credentials needed to achieve strong career outcomes. Work-based learning is beneficial for all young people but can be especially useful for individuals from low-income backgrounds and others who may otherwise not have access to career exposure, educational opportunities, professional networks, and social capital that play a critical role in career success.

The popularity of work-based learning has surged in recent years, with new energy and activity from the public and private sectors. States and locals can now leverage federal CTE dollars for these activities while also including work-based learning as a program quality indicator. While roughly half of states selected work-based learning as a quality indicator for their CTE programs, early data from these efforts demonstrated mixed success, with fewer students than expected accessing high-quality opportunities. The pandemic was a factor in these outcomes, especially for young people in rural and underserved communities that lack an extensive employer base or access to the necessary digital tools to access virtual options.

Faced with these obstacles, it is no wonder schools have continued the outdated approach of focusing on college prep coursework and have generally ignored career education in high schools. However, it can’t be ignored any longer. These opportunities are critical for an individual’s success after high school — preparing young people for the world of work and providing strong alternatives for those not interested in or unable to access a four-year degree. It is time for our education system to undergo much-needed reform and finally reinvent high schools.

This brief calls on policymakers to do just that — elevating innovative approaches across the country, like MAP in Indianapolis, that can be replicated and scaled. It also offers policy recommendations, calling on leaders to adopt solutions that: ensure every high school student can participate in high-quality work-based learning, boost public investment, and make these resources more effective and build strong cross-sector partnerships, which are critical for these efforts to succeed. This work is more important now than ever to ensure our nation’s education system creates paths to greater economic opportunity and avoids leaving millions of young people behind, especially those who don’t go to college.

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