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.
All students should have the opportunity to benefit from quality work-based learning experiences, including internships and apprenticeships.
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Learning by working is a vital ingredient to success after completing a degree or other credential. We envision a future in which all students have access to work-based learning experiences, such as paid internships, that help connect their education to their career goals.
Work-based learning, such as internships, apprenticeships, micro-internships, and experiential/project-based learning, allow students to engage in structured work experiences that reinforce and expand their skill sets within professional settings that are aligned with their career interests and goals. While there is value in all types of work-based learning, internships and apprenticeships have the strongest evidence base for improving student outcomes.
Paid internships are particularly effective. Recent Strada research showed undergraduates who completed a paid internship worked in higher-paying jobs a year after graduation and were more satisfied with their first job. Gaps continue to exist in access to internships, however, and current research on participation, quality, and equity is limited.
Strada supports proven work-based learning models that are responsive to changing workforce needs and students’ interests. Our grantees include: The Council for Independent Colleges’ Work-Based-Learning Consortium, a partnership between independent colleges and an online experiential learning platform; Work+, a network of universities redesigning student employment; and the National Center for Apprenticeship Degrees, which supports states, employers, and higher education institutions in their efforts to develop apprenticeship degree programs.
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.
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.
At the heart of MiraCosta College’s Increase Diversity, Equity, and Advancement in Biotechnology (IDEA-BTEC) program, funded in part by a $400,000 grant from Strada Education Foundation, is a unique partnership between the college and two local biotech employers: Sterogene Bio-Separations and Open Biopharma Research and Training Institute.
The community college learning lab and dental clinic is now a newly refurbished space where dental hygiene students refine their technique on mannequins outfitted with realistic incisors, molars, and cuspids. The clinic was remodeled through a partnership with Delta Dental of Rhode Island and supported by a $400,000 grant from Strada Education Foundation.
A wide range of experiences prepare students for success beyond the completion of their college degree. The evidence for the value of interning on students’ future careers is strong.
Three-year grants awarded to four institutions will support expansion of programs designed to help learners succeed during and after completion of their degree or credential. These programs deploy a broad range of strategies from new technology solutions to embedded, industry-recognized credentials, which will be made available to thousands of new learners through these grants.
Applied connections between education and work are increasingly a part of undergraduate education in the United States.
Disparities in securing paid internships persist for women, people of color, first-generation college students, and students with low incomes — even when taking into account their fields of study
As provost and later president at the University of Utah, Ruth Watkins called out the “hollow promise” a university delivers to college students who have access to higher education but leave without completing a degree.
The baccalaureate degree remains the surest path to economic mobility, employment stability, and a host of associated social benefits.
The pandemic has led to a national crisis of widespread disruption to both work and education for millions of adults in the U.S., especially those from historically marginalized groups.
In the not-so-distant future, workers will make dozens of career changes over a working life of 75 or even 100 years. Michelle Weise, an expert on the future of work and author of “Long Life Learning,” says human skills like communication, creativity, and teamwork will remain critical in an era when robots and automation take over routine jobs. What’s more, workers increasingly will need to learn new skills rather than assuming a degree early in life will carry them through.
While many employers are laying people off during the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon is expanding. The online retailer is hiring more people and helping employees upskill so they can advance either within or outside the company. Amazon’s Ardine Williams talks about how employer-based education programs fit into America’s postsecondary landscape.
After edtech firm Guild acquired his startup incubator Entangled, Paul Freedman and Guild CEO Rachel Carlson set out to help workers use employer benefits to upskill and, with luck, shield themselves from the next recession. Neither could have predicted the economic downturn would come amidst a global pandemic that has robbed tens of millions of Americans of their jobs in a few short months. We talk to Freedman about the role technology can play in helping those workers get the education and training they need to recover.