Strada collaborates with students, policymakers, educators, and employers across the U.S. to strengthen the link between education and opportunity.
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We prioritize policies, practices, and programs that help ensure postsecondary education provides equitable pathways to opportunity.
We advance our mission through research, grantmaking, social impact investments, public policy solutions, Strada-supported nonprofit organizations, and strategic initiatives.
The future of work requires us to learn and demonstrate new skills many times over. As career paths and industries evolve, workers must integrate new skills into changing roles or transition into entirely new fields. To meet that need, this learner-centered ecosystem provides for a continuous cycle of learning and earning throughout our entire working lives.
As learners navigate career transitions, they must take stock of where they’ve been and determine how their skills and experience fit with future opportunities. With navigation, learners can evaluate existing skills and potential careers and plan a path to reach their goals.
Working learners need comprehensive support — including mentorship, peer networks, and assistance securing essentials like child care, food, housing, and transportation — to overcome hurdles, manage commitments, and foster success.
Education isn’t linear and it isn’t one-size-fits-all. Different approaches — degree programs, certificates, skills training — are valuable at different stages of lives and careers. Targeted programs are designed for working learners, offering flexible, affordable training in the right skills at the right times.
A significant challenge for many learners is balancing education with the need to work full-time to support themselves and their families. Stepping away from the workforce to pursue additional education is an unrealistic expectation. Integrated earning and learning will make advancement achievable by offering access to funding support, work-based learning, and, ideally, more portable benefits.
Education is only part of a worker’s qualifications. Yet without it, even experienced workers can be prematurely screened out of consideration. With transparent hiring, workers can demonstrate the skills they have and tie them to skills employers need, creating a better match for job seekers and employers.
To create seamless education-to-employment pathways, a learner-centered ecosystem must be rooted in a robust and interoperable data and systems infrastructure. Diverse stakeholders across the ecosystem must identify new ways to collaborate, integrate, and share data, insights, and resources.