Willow Education, PBC

Mark your calendars for our final webinar of the year on December 5! Join?Bailey Czupryk Cato,?SVP of Transformation at TNTP, and?James Cryan, Founder & CEO of Willow Education, PBC, Founder & former CEO of Rocky Mountain Prep, in a virtual conversation. Join us to discuss: ? Why academics alone aren't enough to guarantee mobility for students experiencing poverty ? Five critical factors that enable economic and social mobility ? Practical strategies schools can implement to create wider paths of opportunity ? Which schools we can learn from, who are changing outcomes Register here: https://lu.ma/kyes2cn4

Did you know that only 57% of 2-year degrees have a positive expected ROI? According to FREOPP, 2 year liberal arts degrees often have no ROI Forward-thinking CC’s are? helping liberal arts students develop in-demand professional skills. Jobs for the Future (JFF) evaluated efforts at three different community colleges around the country to help humanities and liberal arts students build technical skills and work experience in their learning to build desirable, hirable skills. Some of the most effective strategies? ? Incorporate internships and work-based learning into a program ?? Embed business and professional credentials into HLA courses ? Offer professional development opportunities to faculty and staff https://lnkd.in/d4Uffg6P Nancy Hoffman Jobs for the Future (JFF) Bunker Hill CC Lorain County Community College Northern Virginia Community Colleges

Did your college major pay off? There’s a new visualization of the lifetime economic ROI of college programs by major. We think this is a helpful overview of general trends, but there’s some nuance missing in this analysis. Navigating to specific programs is key, because not every computer science program is going to bring a graduate $4 million in lifetime earnings like the Harvard program does. Further, while STEM degrees generally promise a positive ROI, not every program does, just as not every English major has a negative ROI despite the average currently being a negative $39,000. https://lnkd.in/gjPeBN-k? Voronoi App Visual Capitalist Kayla Zhu Niccolo Conte Joyce Ma

What is a service-to-career pathway? Designed to offer pathways to economic opportunity in key sectors to young people, they build career development into a term of service, embedding coaching, skill-building, career exploration and more into a pre-existing program. Service-to-career pathway programs are currently expanding in states like Colorado, Utah and others, and are aimed to help solve for worker shortages in both the private and public sectors and particularly to engage young people from underrepresented groups. https://lnkd.in/eZgMfvNA.

We’ve always known where you work matters– but the new American Opportunity Index proves it. For students considering going straight into a career following high school, identifying which companies offer them the most opportunities to advance, learn, and grow in an entry-level role is important for starting on a career path that will bring them a good life outcome and mobility. The index tracked nearly 5.9 million workers from 2018-2022 at over 500 companies in roles that do not require a bachelor’s degree. Factors that affected a company’s rating in the index included pay, parity, promotions and employee advancement, culture and hiring practices (i.e. hiring first jobs and employees without college degrees). Schultz Family Foundation, The Burning Glass Institute, and Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work. https://lnkd.in/gcgXy_X6

Is skills-based hiring the biggest trend in HR or wishful thinking? Our verdict? It’s promising and needed for equity, but hiring behavior isn't shifting yet. In 2023 only 1 in 700 hires were made with a skills-based hiring approach, demonstrating high enthusiasm but low uptake so far. We're watching some of the tightest labor markets as a bellwether. JFF shares 5 strategies to boost the adoption of skills-based hiring. https://lnkd.in/ghWpvVBv Meena Naik Nate Anderson Jobs for the Future (JFF)

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We loved this blog from Jobs for the Future (JFF) highlighting student involvement in designing career navigation tools. Student feedback has been invaluable in designing Willow to help students effectively explore postsecondary options. Some of the features students want that Willow has? ? Comprehensive career insights, with a modern twist: Willow hosts vetted videos from TikTok explaining different roles and offering a “day in the life” perspective in a way that feels intuitive and similar to the social networks young people are using ? Interactive and personalized features: Willow’s career quiz helps customize the recommendations students explore ? Nontraditional career options, emerging industries and non-college education and career tracks https://lnkd.in/e_tuh-Qi Jeff Bulanda, Ph.D. American Student Assistance?

Are you bullish or bearish on dual enrollment? I live in a split household on this question. I'm trying to get my head around dual enrollment, the promise and current impact, AND the really significant challenges. Perhaps a better question is that dual enrollment is happening and growing fast. How can we better support students and systems leaders to realize the promise far more often? #highereducation #dualenrollment #higheredreform

This will change how you think about student postsecondary outcomes: There is new data from the College-to-Jobs Initiative from The Project on Workforce at Harvard that maps current student outcomes across the country. All of the dots on this map represent the average economic mobility rate of students coming out of different colleges across the country. A second interactive map directly compares college graduation rates with regional job market growth to see how it compares to higher education outcomes on the ground, giving each region a “mismatch score” that reflects how big the difference is between the number of graduates with a particular degree and the number of open jobs in their field. Exploring both map underscores that, while institutional choice makes a difference in outcomes, specific degree programs within an institution can also be a pivotal factor in a student's economic mobility after graduation depending on their career field. https://lnkd.in/e-c4XahS