Strada collaborates with students, policymakers, educators, and employers across the U.S. to strengthen the link between education and opportunity.
Learn More
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.
Read time
Learning by working is a vital ingredient to success after completing a degree or other credential. Work-based learning experiences help students make the connection between their education and their career aspirations.
We envision a future in which all career-seeking students can access quality work-based learning experiences, such as paid internships and apprenticeships.
While there is value in all types of work-based learning, paid internships are particularly effective. A 2022 Strada report showed undergraduates who completed a paid internship worked in higher-paying jobs a year after graduation. A 2023 Strada report found there continues to be gaps in access to internships, and that internships boost a student’s confidence in communicating their knowledge and skills to employers.
Registered apprenticeships enhance equity by paying learners a living wage from the first day of training, rather than charging tuition. They are proven paths to skilled careers in most of the world’s major economies but are too rare in the U.S. Strada supports Apprenticeships for America to build a robust, sustainable apprenticeship system across the country.
Strada is committed to supporting proven work-based learning models as well as innovations that are responsive to changing workforce needs and students’ interests. Our grantees include a the 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 Kansas Micro-Internship Program, which connects businesses and nonprofits with motivated students ready to gain experience.
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.
Rhode Island has improved the lives and livelihoods of its residents by combining classroom education with hands-on, work-based learning. But what happens when businesses are shuttered and students must learn at a distance? Meghan Hughes, president of the Community College of Rhode Island, says the COVID-19 pandemic is actually a great opportunity for her school and its students to demonstrate how they can adapt in trying times.
January 22, 2020 – CHICAGO – McDonald’s today announced the launch of a new career exploration mobile application called Archways to Careers that will help restaurant employees nationwide maximize education benefits and take the next step in their professional journey– whether at McDonald’s or elsewhere. Built with long-standing partner, the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), and with support from InsideTrack, a national success coaching organization, McDonald’s will now be able to offer all restaurant employees a real-time career advising tool that connects them to InsideTrack’s professional and credentialed advisors to support, coach and help them chart a path to achieve the future job or career they desire.
New analysis of Strada-Gallup Education Consumer Survey finds that 46% of working-age adults without a college degree believe they need additional education and training to advance in their careers.