Career Education

This research brief summarizes key findings from a national research initiative conducted by Hattaway Communications to better understand how young people perceive career education and training. Based on in-depth qualitative and quantitative research, the report explores what learners value, what barriers they face, and what motivates them to consider non-degree pathways. The insights highlight a desire for stability, purpose, and practical guidance.

These findings are intended to help grantees design, position, and promote programs in ways that resonate more deeply and move learners to take action.

This research report presents in-depth findings from a national study conducted by Hattaway Communications on behalf of the Pathways and Workforce Funders Group (PWF). The report explores how learners, parents, and employers understand and experience non-degree education pathways. Drawing on survey data from more than 3,000 participants—including high school students, young adults, parents, and hiring managers—it offers a comprehensive look at attitudes toward education and career training options beyond a four-year degree.

The findings reveal widespread support for pathways programs, shared motivations across audiences, and critical gaps in perceived accessibility, language, and relevance. The report also identifies communication challenges and provides actionable recommendations for practitioners, funders, and advocates to strengthen messaging, improve access, and increase enrollment.

This communications toolkit is designed to help organizations and advocates effectively engage learners and employers regarding the value of career education and training programs as well as skill-based hiring. It offers research-backed messaging that reflects what people care about most—and what motivates them to take action. These messages don’t just describe the benefits of pathways programs, they also help audiences see these options as relevant, accessible, and worth pursuing. The guidance in this manual is grounded in science-based communication practices and shaped by extensive research, including a landscape analysis of messaging in the field and media, a nationally representative survey with message testing, roundtable discussions with learners and employers, and a series of pulse surveys.

This toolkit offers adaptable, ready-to-use messages, language, and themes to support outreach, engagement, and storytelling. Use them to strengthen your communications—whether you're writing a social post, developing a presentation, or talking with partners and stakeholders. The messages are designed to be flexible; feel free to use them as written or tailor them to fit your audience and voice.

Shifting the Skills Conversation: Employer Attitudes and Outcomes of Career Technical Education provides tangible data points on employer attitudes toward Career Technical Education (CTE) and the positive return on investment CTE experiences provide for business and economic growth. Based on a national survey of more than 300 professionals actively involved in hiring decisions in in-demand fields, these new findings demonstrate that employers strongly support and see direct value in CTE. The findings also indicate that employer recognition and support for skills-focused hiring is growing and that employers back a greater public investment in CTE programs and supports

This toolkit provides effective messages targeted to key audiences and strategies for dissemination to increase participation in Credit for Prior Learning among adult learners who are pursuing career pathways and CTE programs of study that lead to jobs in in-demand fields.

The State of the Future U.S. Workforce: Student Ability Report analyzes anonymized data from the YouScience Discovery aptitude-based career guidance assessments taken in U.S. high schools (grades 9 through 12) across all 50 states in 2021. They outline our findings and suggest solutions that address the challenge in a holistic, practical way in this report.

High school graduates no longer see the traditional 4-year college pathway as their only postsecondary option, according to the latest research from YouScience®. This report contains insights into pathways students are choosing instead, where they turn for influence and guidance, and where there are opportunities for improvement. The report includes data and solutions for:

• Career and Technical Education (CTE) awareness.
• Post-graduation satisfaction.
• Educator/student interactions.
• Counselor impact.
• Aptitude discovery.

This is a report containing the results of a study on new approaches in higher education, funded by the Charles Kock Foundation.

The Tear the Paper Ceiling: STARs Hiring Playbook gives human resource professionals, talent leaders, and hiring managers practical tools and guidance to shift their hiring to include STARs - workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes.

Opportunity@Work's report, Rise with the STARs: Building a Stronger Labor Market for STARs, Communities, and Employers, shows the impact of degree discrimination on employers and STARs and identifies a better path forward for everyone.