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.
Connecting education with opportunity.
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For too many young people, the end of high school is a time of uncertainty rather than hope. As they move forward, they join countless adults across America who are struggling to figure out the best path to a fulfilling career and life, and aren’t sure if investing in more education is the safest bet. Meanwhile employers can’t find the talent they need, and thousands of good jobs are going unfilled. What’s clear is this: Capable learners and eager employers are searching for each other in a system with too many walls and not enough doors.
At Strada, we’re focused on one goal: helping clear the path between education and work, especially for those with the most standing in their way. We’re a foundation that deploys a diverse range of tools – from research to investing to policy and more – to foster collaboration between the institutions that serve learners, and the employers who need them. Together with partners, we’re helping workplaces better articulate what they need, and colleges better provide it. We’re lifting up new approaches to career coaching and work-based learning. We’re strengthening data systems that enable learners to make informed choices about where and what to study, and help everyone more easily see outcomes. And we’re bringing stakeholders to the table to make it all more affordable.
We’re listening and learning. Investing and experimenting. Measuring and refining. And while we can’t yet know exactly what comes next, we’re sure of one thing: it’s possible to create a world where every person – no matter where they start – can see the way ahead, and get there. To next-level learning. To a meaningful career. To a life filled with choices and growth.
To opportunity.
At Strada, we work with our partners — students, policymakers, educators, and employers across the U.S. — to ensure learning after high school provides equitable pathways to opportunity.
We build relationships with educational institutions, workforce development organizations, employers, innovative startups, membership associations, and other funders.
Our team includes experts in higher education, philanthropy, research, workforce development, economic development, public policy, and impact investing. We work together to strengthen the link between education and opportunity.
Strada announced the appointment of Beth Cobert as the organization’s first President of Affiliates and Strategic Partnerships.
Our policy agenda focuses on five priority areas: Clear Outcomes, Education-to-Career Coaching, Affordability, Work-Based Learning, and Employer Alignment. Our work focuses on improving both education and employment systems so students realize the economic value of their education and employers have the talent and skills they need to meet the demands of the labor market.
Strada’s newest report, Quality Coaching, looks at students’ experiences across three elements of quality coaching and we examine the experiences of recent graduates. The report also offers insights to leaders, practitioners, and others seeking to improve students’ career outcomes.
Education-to-employment data help individuals make informed decisions about college and workforce training.
Mentors in Tech recruits tech industry veterans from the region’s robust tech industry to mentor students at the area’s small, affordable, open-access colleges. The partnership between Green River and Mentors in Tech, or MinT, is supported in part by a $400,000 grant from Strada’s Employer and Community College Partnership Challenge.
Nationally recognized experts on postsecondary education and workforce development will provide leadership and support for Strada’s strategic plan.
Strada’s newest report, Building Better Internships, looks at the latest findings from the National Survey of College Internships (NSCI), a survey developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions.
Strada Education Foundation, today announced two new leadership appointments. These leaders will support the foundation’s efforts to conduct research and develop policy solutions in two critical areas: quality coaching and work-based learning.
Through the Arizona State-led Work+Collective, more than a dozen institutions are injecting mentorship, career development skills.
Strada Education Foundation announced Justin Draeger will join Strada as senior vice president, affordability.
The State Opportunity Index was developed to help states build a stronger connection between education after high school and equitable pathways to opportunity so students realize the full value of their education and employers have the workforce they need to fill high-demand jobs.
Mamie Voight, president and CEO of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, on how states can use State Opportunity Index data to identify what is working within higher education and what needs to improve.
Michael Collins, vice president of the Center for Racial Economic Equity at Jobs for the Future, on how the State Opportunity Index tells a more nuanced story of the data surrounding the value of education after high school.
Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president of The Education Trust, on how the State Opportunity Index helps measure whether policies and practices are actually benefiting the students they were designed to support.
‘Colleges and universities, states, and our country can do more to help prepare students for the critical transition from college to the labor market.’
New research highlights what states and institutions can do to help more graduates secure college-level jobs.