Recap: Pathways to Opportunity: Nontraditional Pathways to Career Success

None of this works without innovations in how we fund education, and Marjorie Ringrose of the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation discussed how the foundation has evolved to support apprenticeship-based opportunities at community colleges that can unlock degrees and other credentials while preparing students for quality jobs. This shift also puts greater emphasis on guidance, said Norma Rey-Alicea of NextGen Talent. NextGen’s work empowers counselors in schools and nonprofits with the data tools to help students find careers in growing, well-paying industries that align with their interests and passions.

Key to all of this work, panelists acknowledged, is expanding awareness of the non-traditional opportunities available – and the powerful experiences within them. Adrianne Level noted that Boston Day and Evening’s partnership with Roxbury Community College stacks classes, certifications and experience. “They get access to workshops, and a big part of it is pre-apprenticeship training from the glaziers union with these young people, so that when they graduate from BDEA, they graduate with their pre-apprenticeship hours, so they can go right into the union, and they have the industry certificates.”

Erik Miller discussed a system that Cantu called “rungs on the ladder,” where students are not automatically channeled into thinking about four-year degrees, especially for those students whose financial or career realities make a four-year degree less practical at this time. “We're also looking at it and saying, ‘Okay, what are the places that you can go after this? If that's what you choose to do.’ So let's try to get them more thinking through community college first, not have to worry about those funding challenges that usually come up in August when they sign in for a four-year institution, and they realize they can't pay the bill.”

Beyond changing student expectations, these programs are also encouraging a rebalancing of available opportunities so programs can meet the demands of both students and employers. As Marjorie Ringrose noted, “If you wanted to be a surgical technologist, there are jobs waiting for you with the Commonwealth's largest employers with great pay, great benefits, great job career ladders, but you might not be able to earn a seat right at your local community college in their programs because the program capacity is limited,” she said. “We as a state need to think hard about how we increase the capacity if we make cost less of a barrier and increase the demand for these seats.”

We also need to let go of older paradigms and approaches, said Eli Pimentel. “I think that where programs are not working for learners, we need a better understanding as to why,” she said. “I think we can have more focus on completion rates, but I think we need more of that qualitative data too, around what learners are looking for, and what parts of the experience maybe isn't working for them or wasn't working for them that particular time, to help us again, from a design perspective, create more programs that are in line with what folks are looking for.”

While panelists acknowledged that Massachusetts has been slower than other states in offering new opportunities, it is clear that the landscape is shifting, and there is interest from students who have seen their friends and family members struggle with loans or leave school without a degree and are seeking smarter options with long-term payoffs. Norma Rey-Alicea suggested holding programs more accountable. “Right now, students are really bearing the financial risk when they attend a program to see if it will pay off,” she said, raising the possibility that some sort of shared responsibility for student success would be a powerful lever for change.

Karley Ausiello, Chief Community Impact Office at United Way of Massachusetts Bay, closed out the session by calling on funders to make the long-term, flexible commitments that allow for this work to happen over time. And she called on everyone to make connections, advocate and uplift the voices of young people. “We need transparent and actionable data that we can all use. We need to expand the programs that you've heard about up here,” she said. There's a lot we can be advocating for, and we need to be doing that together.”