Strada’s mission-aligned investments support and advance our work to strengthen the connections between education and career. Strada invests in carefully selected organizations and funds that have the potential to create systemic change on behalf of students, job-seekers and employers.
The Strada Difference
While financial return is an important aspect of any investment decision, Strada’s approach also emphasizes mission impact. We believe that by supporting companies engaged in education and career planning, student success, and workforce transitions, we will expand the pipeline of diverse talent to meet the needs of a changing economy.
Our work includes direct and indirect investment in and acquisition of mission-aligned organizations pursuing innovative education and human capital development solutions. Strada typically seeks to invest in more established entities with a demonstrated record of effectiveness and market acceptance. Through our Strada Education Innovation Fund, we also explore opportunities in early-stage organizations focused on solutions to prepare Americans for the future of learning and work.
“Strada’s deep roots in education have created unique opportunities, from collaborations with their affiliates to strategic co-marketing. They have been a key partner in helping us grow our team and scale our impact on students and institutions.”
David Kozhuk | CEO and Founder, UCONNECT
“To successfully build and scale education-to-employment pathways for more than 100 million working, low-wage adults requires not just passion but painstaking follow-through. Strada has followed through for Cell-Ed. They’ve amplified our future of work message with key audiences, recently helping us secure a high-profile speaking opportunity that led to quality leads. We prize how their authenticity and active engagement aids Cell-Ed in executing on our growth plan.”
Jessica Rothenberg-Aalami | CEO and Founder, CELL-ED
This career exploration and readiness program’s formula for learner success combines social capital, self-discovery to launch career pathways for first-gen grads
Just half of college alumni feel it was worth it to take out loans to attend college, with even lower levels of satisfaction from Black and Latino alumni about their loans.
Growing up in San Francisco, Ebony Beckwith attended an academically selective high school where most of her classmates were university-bound. She opted for a different path, heading directly into the workforce while winding through several community colleges before realizing she needed that four-year degree to reach her career goals.
Invest now in community colleges to fuel economic opportunity
Talent Path’s Learn-and-Earn Model Bridges Skills Gap Between College and Career
Learn about results of UpSkill America’s survey of over 340 business leaders and hear directly from leading employers in food service, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail. Panelists will share how their businesses have responded to events in 2020, including ways they have responded to technological change and racial inequities in employment.
Gerald Chertavian believes every young adult has potential and deserves a clear pathway to a great career, whether through college or directly into the workforce. And as founder and CEO of Year Up, he’s proving that with the appropriate training and employer support, it can take as little as one year for “opportunity youth” — 16- to 24-year-olds who are neither working nor in school — to move from poverty to a well-paid, in-demand career, often with a Fortune 500 company.
Can the pandemic induce higher education to jump-start the future of learning?
Amid a pandemic crisis characterized by stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions, the leader of the career center at Stony Brook University describes its fallout with an unexpected word: freedom.
Bill Hansen to Step Down After Eight Years Leading Nonprofit Social Impact Organization
There’s no shortage of big, ambitious ideas for creating an education-workforce system that improves upward mobility for more people. Harvard education economist David Deming uses hard data to stress test those ideas and see what might work, and what probably won’t. We talk to him about what he’s learning and what he recommends we do right now to improve the value of education for an increasingly diverse workforce.
Could the dislocations brought on by COVID-19 lead to a long-term upside? For this webinar, Strada’s Ben Wildavsky leads a discussion about the hybrid campus concept with expert panelists Cole Clark, managing director — higher education at Deloitte; Maurie McInnis, president, Stony Brook University; Jeff Selingo, higher education author; and Marni Baker Stein, provost, Western Governors University. The conversation was inspired by a new Deloitte report developed in partnership with Strada Education Network.
In her early 20s, Kiabeth Santos was well on her way to achieving her goal of becoming a nurse. She wanted to work in health care, and she loves working with people. But then life — as it often does — got in the way.
Join us as Ben Wildavsky, Strada senior vice president for national engagement, leads panelists in a discussion about the hybrid campus concept, blending the physical and digital words in everything from academic advising to courses to career services. Inspired by a new Deloitte report developed in partnership with Strada Education Network, this conversation — “The Hybrid Campus: A Postpandemic Vision of Higher Education” – will consider whether this upheaval can lead to a more student-focused university.
XULA President Reynold Verret on How His HBCU Helps Students Succeed
During COVID-19, many higher education institutions adopted a mix of face-to-face and online delivery of courses and services—creating an opportunity for a more permanent shift to a hybrid university.
Historically, the path to a college degree and upward mobility for Black students usually led through a Black college or university. Even today, with mainstream institutions welcoming many more racially diverse students, HBCUs remain a driving force in launching Black leaders, including Vice President Kamala Harris, a graduate of Howard University. To find out what HBCUs can teach the rest of higher ed about student success, we sit down with Reynold Verret, the child of Haitian political refugees who grew up to become president of Xavier University of Louisiana, a small HBCU that is the nation’s No. 1 producer of future Black doctors.
Preparing the Education-Workforce System for the 100-Year Career