Introduction

America's education-to-employment system once prepared students for stable, lifelong employment. The relationship between education and work was simple: academic credentials or technical training led to reliable careers and economic security. That world no longer exists.

Today, we face The Great Disconnect between what young adults need and what the system provides. Our education-to-employment system was designed for an economy where technical knowledge and routine skills dominated, where career paths were predictable, and where employment was stable and long-term.

But in the emerging economy, 65% of children entering school today will work in jobs that don't yet exist. Technology, especially AI, is decimating repetitive tasks, with 80% of such work projected to be automated in the next decade. Moreover, the gig economy is eroding the employer-employee relationship, with 36% of U.S. workers now engaged in freelance work.

We've built institutions focused on issuing diplomas rather than preparing students for life, measuring inputs instead of outcomes, and missing the opportunity to cultivate ecosystems of learning.

To have any chance to modernize the system, we need to acknowledge why it’s broken and design solutions that address root causes from “first principles.”

“Every young adult with unfulfilled potential represents not just a personal tragedy but a collective loss—of innovation, productivity, tax revenue, and social cohesion.”

The American Dream was built on the promise that hard work, education, and character would lead to prosperity and fulfillment. That promise is broken for most young adults today. However, it can be resurrected through a bold transformation of our system.

The stakes could not be higher. Every young adult with unfulfilled potential represents not just a personal tragedy but a collective loss—of innovation, productivity, tax revenue, and social cohesion. When we fail to prepare the next generation, we fail our future.

The choice before us is clear: adapt our system to the emerging economy or accept obsolescence. The former requires uncomfortable change, rethinking entrenched practices, and challenging powerful incumbents. The latter guarantees declining prosperity, widening inequality, and diminished global standing.

Let's choose adaptation. Let's choose innovation. Let's choose prosperity. Let's measure what matters, fund what works, and build what's needed. Let's create an education-to-employment system worthy of our young adults' ambitions and equal to the challenges of our time.

An Undeclared State of Emergency

Our secondary and post-secondary education-to-employment system is fundamentally broken. Despite investing over $700 billion annually ($30,000-40,000 per student) and the dedicated efforts of thousands of educators, less than 20% of young adults are prepared to secure jobs with strong prospects for growth, stability, or satisfaction within 2–6 years of high school graduation. The situation is even worse for under-resourced young adults. Student debt has skyrocketed to $1.7 trillion while the value of a college degree has plummeted. Today over 50% of graduates end up in jobs that don’t require a college degree. Meanwhile, employers spend billions reskilling the unprepared while critical positions remain unfilled.

The consequences are devastating.

Here are 10 sobering FACTS:

1. 52% of college grads end up in jobs that don’t require a college degree but are burdened with $1.7 trillion of debt.
2. ~80% of universities produce graduates that, on average, generate earnings lower than a seasoned, skilled tradesperson in their 30s.
3. Students with 2 or more internships are twice as likely to find employment within 6 months of graduation. Less than 25% of first-gen college students secure internships.
4. 88% of employers say college graduates from the last three years are less prepared for the workforce than in years prior. 90% are seeking evidence of a student's ability to solve problems.
5. Nearly half of master's degree programs leave students financially worse off.
6. Nearly a quarter of bachelor’s degree programs have a negative ROI.
7. From 2022 to 2024 the number of applicants per early career professional job doubled, with many students submitting over 100 applications.
8. Universities are increasingly sending students to tech-based job boards (e.g., Handshake, Indeed, LinkedIn) to find opportunities even though 60-80% of hires come through networking and personal relationships.
9. Among the most attractive jobs in business, technology, and healthcare, <3% of applicants are interviewed even when they meet the listed qualifications. Most applicants get no response from employers.
10. Employers spend $5,000-$25,000 per early career hire competing for 20% of students that are well-prepared and >$100B on reskilling the 80%. Despite that investment, we still have workforce shortages across 50+ pathways.

Each FACT is alarming on its own, but together, they underscore the symptoms of a deeply broken system. Without significant reform, this system will succumb to inertia, deteriorating even further.

The Great Disconnect

There is a large and growing disconnect between what young adults need and what the system delivers. As the disconnect grows, we will have more unfulfilled citizens, a less strong workforce, and an even wider gap between the haves and have nots.

The Future of Work is Now

The emerging economy is fundamentally, not incrementally, different from the economies of past and present. Technology, demographics, geopolitics, and worker expectations are all profoundly affecting the economy and nature of work. Three megatrends are most critical to appreciate:

1. Repetitive tasks are being automated — AI and software have taken over routine work. The percentage of all jobs involving repetitive tasks has dropped from ~90% in 1870 to ~50% today — and is expected to drop to ~20% within the next decade.
2. Career paths are unstable and evolving — 65% of children in school today will work in jobs that don’t yet exist. Most people will have at least five distinct careers in their lifetime. Navigating these transitions requires flexibility, not fixed skill sets.
3. Independent work is replacing traditional employment — Over 36% of American workers now freelance. Long-term employment is giving way to short-term gigs, project-based work, and entrepreneurship.

This emerging reality renders the current education-to-employment system even less relevant. A system built for stability, credentials, and fixed pathways cannot prepare students for a world of ambiguity, reinvention, and constant learning.

The Assets Young Adults Need to Succeed

We believe that young adults need at least seven assets to be prepared to flourish in life. While the term "asset" may seem unusual in this context, it represents a needed shift in perspective. An asset, whether it's a skill, knowledge, relationships, or financial resources, holds value and has the potential to provide benefits both now and in the future. The most impactful assets are valuable, enduring, and can be shared. To succeed in today's evolving economy and in life, young adults need to acquire at least seven of these essential assets:

Ownership & Hustle: A strong sense of self-direction with the capacity and confidence to proactively create opportunities instead of waiting for them. Full acceptance that even though we all need support to succeed, only an individual can holsitically steward their careers. An optimistic belief that each individual has the ability to shape their own destiny.

Adaptability: The capacity to quickly learn, unlearn, and relearn in response to change, leveraging technology while maintaining emotional resilience when navigating uncertainty and ambiguity.

Core Skills: Practical skills such as collaboration, problem-solving, influencing, judgement, and communication used to achieve real-world results. Life skills can only be built through application and a consistent record of achievement.

Opportunity Pathfinding: The ability to strategically navigate educational and professional opportunities throughout life, from choosing education paths to securing quality positions and transitioning smoothly between roles.

Financial Power: Going beyond basic financial literacy to strategically use money as a tool, understanding investment concepts, leverage, and building assets rather than relying solely on income.

Social Capital: The ability to build and leverage relationships to create opportunities, developing a diverse professional network, earning meaningful sponsorship, and establishing a positive reputation within relevant communities.

Academic Foundations: Mastery of foundational concepts including reading, reasoning, mathematics, history, scientific literacy, structured writing, and technical literacy.

Haves and Have Nots

For life-ready young adults the emerging economy is exciting- it will afford more freedom, more earning power, and more opportunities than any generation before. AI will handle the mundane, leaving them with creative, strategic, and meaningful work. They’ll have the flexibility to work from anywhere, build their own paths, and own their successes without gatekeepers holding them back. The world will be their marketplace, and their skills, networks, and ambition will be the currency that matters most. For the prepared, the next two decades won’t just offer jobs—it will offer a chance to shape history.

For the unprepared, the future of work will be a relentless cycle of demoralizing underemployment and unfulfilled potential. AI and automation will replace routine jobs, degrees or certifications alone won’t guarantee employment, and companies will demand real skills, adaptability, and proof of value. Without the right skills, networks, and mindsets, young adults will struggle to find stable, well-paying work while competition intensifies and opportunities shrink. The gap between the prepared and the unprepared will widen fast, and those who fail to evolve will face lower wages, fewer options, and constant uncertainty in a ruthless economy.

The extent to which young adults possess these assets has a profound impact on how their lives play out. Preparedness is the difference between:

• Whether Jimmy ends up a low-wage mechanic stuck with outdated skills or growing a high-demand auto service business using AI-powered techniques.
• Whether Mei ends up as a server at two different restaurants when she fails as an “influencer” or builds a thriving digital brand with diversified income and strong partnerships.
• Whether Aiden settles for an unsatisfying healthcare support role or becomes a respected physician and clinical leader.
• Whether Leo stays invisible in low level technical roles in big companies or launches a funded startup that brings his robotics innovations to life.

To learn more about how life-preparedness can unlock (or thwart) human potential for specific young people, please view our addendum.

Today’s education system is designed to build only one of seven needed assets –academic foundations — and it delivers inconsistent results at best. By default, this leaves most young adults unprepared.

Principles and Proposals to Fix the System

Reforming the education-to-employment system is not a question of tweaking what is. It’s a call to reimagine what could be. It’s not about new programs, but a new posture. One that starts with young people’s dreams and ends with real lives transformed.

To do so, we must root ourselves in principles bold enough to disrupt, human enough to heal, and practical enough to guide real decisions. A good principle doesn’t just inspire—it sharpens. It helps us generate better ideas and decide which ones are worth pursuing.

Principles to Guide Us

Start with Students, End with Outcomes

Reform only matters if it changes lives. Every policy, product, and program must be judged by whether it helps more young adults succeed. Full stop. Design not for bureaucracy, but for lives well lived. Begin with the dreams of young people and make every step count toward them.

Truth Over Tradition

We must be willing to reassess outdated assumptions and align systems with today’s realities even when doing so is uncomfortable. We need to share the full truth with students about what it actually takes to flourishing life and work. Even when it stings. Especially when it stings. Only by seeing clearly can we move forward with purpose.

Connection Is the Curriculum

No one climbs alone. Make human relationships the spine of the system.

Show the Receipts

If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t scale. Every solution, nonprofit or for-profit, must prove its value through data, not marketing.

Empower Over Prescribe

Young people aren’t problems to fix. They’re the engine of our future. Give them the tools, truth, and trust to chart their own path. Reinforce agency to empower builders, not passengers.

From these five principles, we offer twelve proposals. Each is designed to confront root causes with bold, practical action. Together, we hope they form a blueprint of sorts to transform a broken system into one that prepares every young American not just to earn a diploma, but to live a flourishing life.

1. Make Life Preparedness a Pillar of National Security

An unprepared workforce represents more than just an education crisis—it's an existential threat to American prosperity and global leadership. When 80% of our graduates struggle to effectively compete in the emerging economy, we're facing a strategic vulnerability on par with our most serious military threats. Without large-scale structural change, the benefits of technological and societal advancement will accrue to an increasingly smaller segment of society, widening inequality and diminishing America's competitive position globally. Our economic security, innovation capacity, and technological leadership all depend on a career-and-life-ready workforce.

We invest billions in weapons and manpower to defend against external threats, yet allow our most strategic asset—our people—to remain underdeveloped. That’s a recipe for national decline.

If we want to maintain our edge, national leaders must treat life preparedness and workforce readiness as core to national security. We need the same urgency and bipartisan will that powered the GI Bill, the Space Race, and winning the Cold War. The solution is not simply more funding—it’s structural transformation to align our systems around what young people actually need to succeed and what our economy and democracy require to thrive.

We urge Congress, the White House, Governors, business leaders, educators, investors, and philanthropists to unite behind a new national mission: preparing every young American not just for a diploma, but to contribute meaningfully, innovate boldly, and adapt rapidly.

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Real-World Precedents: The Space Race

The Space Race was treated as a national security crisis—whoever led in space was seen as having the edge in military, technological, and ideological power. In response to Sputnik, the U.S. passed the National Defense Education Act to rapidly boost science, math, and language skills. The result: a surge in STEM talent, a moon landing, and decades of innovation-led dominance.

2. Set a New North Star - Life Preparedness

The wrong North Star guides the education system. It was designed—and continues to be funded, measured, and rewarded—primarily based on its ability to deliver credentials. Students earn diplomas, degrees, certificates, and badges — yet employers still say they’re unprepared. Most young adults end up in less-than ideal jobs. Why? Because credentials are proxies — and increasingly poor ones — for what actually matters: demonstrated competence.

This misalignment means that even when students "succeed" by conventional educational standards, they are often unprepared for the real world.

Going forward we must set our aspirations higher. Every young adult in the United States must be fully prepared to achieve their aspirations and succeed in the face of the emerging economy. The education-to-employment system needs to empower each young adult with the seven assets they need to succeed over the course of their lifetime: Ownership & Hustle, Adaptability, Life Skills, Career & Education Pathfinding, Financial Power, Social Capital, and Academic Foundations.

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Real World Precedents: Universal Public Education, Ending the Draft, Transportation Safety

In the history of U.S. education, there have been two major pivots in its North Star. First, the Common School Movement of the 1800s, which established universal public education as a civic right, and later, the GI Bill, which expanded higher education as a path to economic opportunity for millions (although largely excluding black Americans). Each moment reshaped the system by aligning national resources with a new vision of who should be served and why. Today, we stand at the edge of a third great pivot—one that must prepare all young people not just to attend school, but to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Outside of education, there are numerous examples to learn from. We'll share three:

Military – From Draft to Professional Force:  After ending the draft in 1973, the U.S. military shifted to a volunteer model focused on readiness, skill development, and long-term careers. Over time, this transformed the armed forces into a more capable, professional, and technologically advanced institution.

Finance – From Elite Access to Mass Participation:  Starting in the 1970s, U.S. financial policy and innovation expanded access to credit and investing tools for everyday Americans. This shift fueled broader wealth-building opportunities through 401(k)s, homeownership, and entrepreneurship.

Transportation Safety – From Blame to Prevention: Beginning in the 1960s, road safety policy moved from blaming individual drivers to designing systems that prevent crashes. This led to decades of improvements—like seat belts, crash standards, and drunk driving laws—that drastically reduced fatalities.

3. Elevate Educators by Rebuilding the System Around Them

Too often, when someone critiques the education system, they’re accused of attacking teachers. Let us be unequivocal: the opposite is true. The current structure of secondary and postsecondary education is failing teachers just as profoundly as it is failing students. High school educators in particular are expected to serve as instructors, counselors, life coaches, disciplinarians, bureaucrats, and first responders—within a system that offers limited support, little autonomy, and unclear goals. We do not believe teachers are the problem. We believe they are among the most undervalued assets in America today.

To elevate teaching into the respected, enjoyable, and high-impact profession it ought to be, we must redesign the system from first principles. That means shifting incentives, updating roles, aligning to the realities of the emerging economy, and measuring what actually matters for student success. Educators should be treated as trusted professionals, not delivery mechanisms for outdated mandates. They need access to better tools, clearer goals, more relevant partnerships, and the agency to guide young people toward meaningful futures. When we build a system that works for students and works for teachers, we unlock the full promise of public education.

If we are to expect dramatically better outcomes for students, we must create dramatically better conditions for educators. Structural transformation is not a threat to teachers—it is their best shot at the respect, support, and satisfaction they deserve. Let us be clear-eyed about how broken the current system is—and bold enough to build one worthy of those doing the work on the front lines.

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Real-World Precedents: Evolution of Nursing

Over the past 25 years, nursing has evolved into a respected, diverse, and empowered profession, recognized as essential to healthcare quality and innovation. This transformation has been driven by expanding nurses' scope of practice, enabling Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs)—such as Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Anesthetists—to operate independently, diagnosing conditions, prescribing medications, and managing patient care at levels previously reserved for physicians. Concurrently, the profession has diversified into specialized roles ranging from health coaching and case management to informatics and policy advising, supported by advanced training programs, regulatory reforms, and technology adoption. These changes have significantly enhanced nurses' autonomy, elevated their compensation and work flexibility, and positioned them as central figures in addressing contemporary healthcare challenges.

4. Measure What Matters: Competence

The single most important and immediate action is to measure what we care about, namely the life and career readiness of students based on their competence. Measurement is necessary to inform student and parent decision making, intelligent policy, funding, and innovation. We must measure what matters.

Today schools measure and promote a mixed bag of quasi-relevant (e.g., standardized test scores), easily gamed (e.g., graduation rates) and/or counter-productive measures (e.g., admission rates). Few, if any, schools measure and share whether their students succeed in life.

We need measurement to align as directly as possible to life and career success, including what is valued in the workplace today and in the future. Consider these concepts:

• States should expect every accredited high school and postsecondary institution to measure each student’s career and life readiness.
• Adapt high school and post-secondary report cards in two fundamental ways. First, make 50% of progress based on life readiness to complement academic performance. Second, measure current competence over historical averages. A more effective approach would be to shift to competency-based assessments that measure what students know and can do now. This revised system would highlight a student's most recent demonstration of skills, allowing growth and mastery to be recognized even if early learning attempts were challenging. Such a system better reflects that learning is non-linear and that recent competence is a stronger predictor of future success than historical averages.
• Statewide report cards should be mandated to assess and publicly disclose the effectiveness of schools and districts in preparing students for career and life success. This transparency, facilitated by state oversight, will incentivize schools and districts by linking their performance directly to public accountability and funding. Such report cards should be updated regularly to reflect shifts in educational strategies and real-world demands, ensuring that resources are strategically directed towards institutions that demonstrate genuine progress in life and career readiness.
• As many have noted, universities should be required to measure and publicly report meaningful return-on-investment data—such as graduate employment rates, average salaries, and debt-to-income ratios. If they do not take the lead, government investment may be necessary to ensure this information is collected and shared. Despite decades of advocacy, progress on this front has been limited

We’ve shared our own system for measuring life-preparedness which we consider “open-source”. It’s also available to students at no cost.

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Real-World Precedents: Western Governors University, Year-Up

WGU is a standout example of measuring competencies because it utilizes a fully competency-based education model. Rather than relying on credit hours or traditional grades, students progress by demonstrating mastery of clearly defined competencies—covering academic knowledge, practical skills, and real-world capabilities. Students must pass rigorous assessments, projects, or simulations to demonstrate their knowledge, meaning that actual capability rather than class attendance or participation dictates progress. WGU also closely aligns its competencies with market demands, ensuring students build not only academic knowledge but also professional, financial, and technical skills critical to career success. Its regular reporting of graduate employment outcomes and salaries further enhances transparency and accountability, directly linking educational competence to life and career outcomes.

Year Up is a non-profit program that trains urban young adults (ages 18–24) in both technical and professional skills, rigorously measuring their competence in each. Participants sign a learning contract and are held to high standards of “professional skills” (punctuality, teamwork, communication, etc.) – infractions like tardiness or dress-code violations trigger stipend deductions as immediate feedback. After six months of skill training, students enter a six-month internship with a corporate partner, where their performance is evaluated and supported. Year Up publishes transparent outcome data: for instance, 83% of graduates are employed within 4 months of completing the program (most in roles related to their training), , and a randomized study found Year Up alumni earn about 30% higher wages than peers who did not go through the. This program is a standout for directly linking measured competencies (both “soft” skills and technical know-how) to life and career outcomes, using an innovative system of assessment, coaching, and real-world application that has proven effective in closing the opportunity gap.

5. Schools must adapt or accept diminishing relevance

High schools and universities, be it public or private, must adapt to the realities of the emerging economy or accept that they will be less and less relevant. That said, education leaders that acknowledge their responsibility to fully prepare students for career-and-life success face three seemingly impossible objectives:

1. Deliver dramatically stronger results where they already focus - academic foundations.
2. Dramatically improve their students’ life readiness, including life skills, social capital, financial power, ownership, and adaptability.
3. Spend the same or less money per student.

The only feasible path to achieving these objectives requires a fundamental shift in mindset and operational models—from merely delivering programs to functioning as a dynamic platform that cultivates individual growth. Schools were never meant to do it all — and they can’t. We need an ecosystem approach where educational institutions act as platform, guide, and orchestrators for student success. In practice that means:

• Schools can play a powerful guiding role in helping students shape their own stories by equipping them with the truth, the tools, and the support they need to make smart choices and take bold action. To that end, schools can empower students and parents with a candid, useful assessment of life preparedness including areas only loosely influenced by the school.
• Guiding (not dictating) out-of-school time while curating high-quality options and creating the incentives and support needed to maximize its benefit.
• Brokering real-world experiences, especially by engaging with employers.
• Activating external networks including much more pervasive apprenticeship, sponsoring, and mentorship opportunities.
• Providing access to dramatically stronger professional career coaching, likely from outside parties free from the conflicts-of-interest of those employed by schools.
• Curating large, diverse, high-quality ecosystems of vendors, service providers, and programming.
• Share student data across time and institutions to foster collaboration.
• Be measured against long-term outcomes, not just diplomas.

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Real-World Precedents: Retail, Financial Advisory, Media and Content Creation

We appreciate that this may feel daunting, but recent history is full of useful examples. We’ll share three:

Example 1: Retail Stores

Traditional retailers evolved from fully integrated sellers—owning all products and processes—to orchestrators who curate extensive ecosystems of third-party sellers, logistics, payment solutions, and complementary brands. This shift improved profitability, product variety, and customer experiences through external innovation.

Poster-child: Amazon Marketplace (curating millions of third-party sellers, logistic partners, and service providers).

Example 2: Financial Advisory Firms

Financial advisors transitioned from directly providing proprietary investment products and advice to orchestrating holistic financial wellness by coordinating external asset managers, fintech services, tax advisors, and insurance providers. This enabled broader and deeper client solutions, greater specialization, and improved financial outcomes.

Poster-child: Charles Schwab (curating third-party advisors, independent funds, fintech solutions, and external financial expertise).

Example 3: Media and Content Creation

Media shifted from tightly controlled, vertically integrated production to ecosystem orchestration, providing platforms and monetization tools to a vast, diverse network of independent creators, advertisers, and analytics providers. This democratized content, expanded audience choice, and created new economic opportunities.

Poster-child: YouTube (orchestrating millions of independent creators, advertisers, and complementary technology tools).

6. A New Approach to Career Readiness: Tell the Truth

Current career exploration programs fail our students too often by providing misleading guidance at critical decision points. Despite good intentions, we're setting young people up for disappointment through premature specialization, overemphasizing unrealistic preferences, sugar-coating requirements, and stopping at career exposure.

We propose a fundamental shift in how we approach career guidance:

Start with life goals, not jobs.

Instead of asking "What career interests you?" let’s ask "What life do you want?" Then work backward to identify the requirements to achieve those aspirations. This approach acknowledges that multiple career paths can lead to similar life outcomes and does not over-index on a limited knowledge base or pre-mature specialization.

Acknowledge young adults have high aspirations

Our research and experience shows no significant difference in life aspirations among students of various socioeconomic backgrounds or ethnicities. They almost all hope to succeed in careers where they can reasonably provide for a family, invest in their future, enjoy a comfortable lifestyle, weather financial shocks, and find personal value in their work; without unsustainable stress or risk.

Anchor on career tracks, not paths

A career "track" represents a person's standing in terms of skill level, achievement, and marketability within the employment landscape. They exist across career “paths” like plumbing, accounting, teaching, nursing, etc.

We think it’s critical to help young adults realize that achieving their life aspirations typically requires progressing beyond low-or-semi skilled work to being on any of the skilled trades, professional, and/or entrepreneurship tracks.

But succeeding on these tracks isn’t a given. In fact, ~120 million of the ~170 million working Americans (71%) work in low-and-semi skilled jobs earning less than $50,000 a year with limited progression. Over 50% of these low-and-semi skilled workers have at least some college education.

Moreover, being off track as a young adult has profound lifelong consequences as less than 10% of people successfully move "up" tracks after their mid-twenties.

Be candid about what it takes to succeed

Students deserve unvarnished information about what success in each track truly requires, including specific GPA targets, college major, extracurricular commitments, and skill development needs. This information helps them make informed decisions about where to invest their limited time and energy.

Create real-world connections

Move beyond basic career information to provide meaningful experiences and relationships with near peers and adults who have successfully navigated these paths. These connections build social capital while providing realistic perspectives on various career options. Recognize that counselors are, by design, generalists and that their guidance must be supplemented by professionals with more industry-specific knowledge.

By revamping our approach to career guidance, we can help students make better-informed decisions during their education that align with their long-term aspirations. This truth-centered approach doesn't demotivate or limit options but rather ensures students understand what various paths genuinely require, enabling them (and their loved ones) to invest wisely in their future.

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Real-World Precedents: The “Truth” Anti-Smoking Campaign

Launched in 2000, the “truth” campaign used graphic, emotionally charged honesty to confront teenagers with the real consequences of smoking. Rather than soft health messaging, the campaign called out tobacco industry manipulation and showed disturbing visuals—like thousands of body bags piled outside a tobacco company’s headquarters, symbolizing daily smoking-related deaths. This no-nonsense approach resonated with young people by making smoking seem uncool and deadly, not rebellious or glamorous. The results were striking: teen smoking rates dropped sharply in the early 2000s, and research estimated that the campaign was directly responsible for about 22% of that decline. One study concluded it helped prevent roughly 450,000 teens from starting to smoke within its first four years. By being brutally honest rather than protective, the campaign changed attitudes and behavior on a national scale.

7. Practicums, Not Classrooms, Create Competence

The current system delivers instruction in a classroom setting ~36 weeks per year complemented by modest homework and/or labs. This represents less than 15% of the waking lives of most young adults. This simply is not enough time or investment to build the competence required to succeed in life. Some students steward the other 85% wisely, but most do not. Let’s help students and their parents steward their time, money, and energy effectively, recognizing that learning and personal development mostly occur outside traditional school hours.

Here are a few ideas to consider:

• High schools should formally and systematically incorporate experiential learning opportunities such as skill-building extracurriculars, internships, mentorship, and hands-on career experiences into curriculum and programming.
• Modernize high school graduation requirements to include 10+ career experiences, providing evidence of proficiency in life skills and achievement in formative experiences.
• Extend high school calendars by 4-8 weeks, and dedicate 50% of total time for students to work in real jobs and/or other skill building experiences.
• Require 2 high quality professional experiences for every undergraduate degree in the United States.‍

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‍Real-World Precedents: Co-Op Heavy Colleges

Co-op-heavy colleges integrate full-time, paid work experiences into the academic curriculum, allowing students to alternate between classroom learning and real-world employment. These structured placements, often lasting 3–6 months, help students graduate with 1–2 years of relevant experience, stronger professional networks, and clearer career direction. Research shows co-op students enjoy higher job placement rates, better starting salaries, and improved confidence entering the workforce. The model also promotes equity by replacing unpaid internships with paid roles. Leading co-op institutions include Northeastern University, Drexel University, University of Cincinnati, and Rochester Institute of Technology, all of which maintain deep employer partnerships across industries. Though it can extend time to graduation, the payoff in career readiness is significant, especially for students in business, engineering, and tech fields.

8. Breakup the Education Nonprofit and EdTech Cartel

There are thousands of nonprofit and for-profit institutions that deliver useful programming and services to educational institutions and young adults. On a case-by-case basis we often see their strengths.  But if we step back and assess how this ecosystem functions at a whole, it’s hard not to conclude that it is ineffective and too often acts as a barrier to innovation.

We’ve analyzed 107 third-party vendors and nonprofit programs, including most of the largest and most successful, for scope, evidence, and business model alignment to students. Our findings:

• Less than 25% have data showing material improvement in student outcomes. Even those with strong data tend to show improvements at a point in time. Almost none can demonstrate that students they serve have materially better life outcomes than their peers.
• The most effective solutions are difficult to scale, with annual cost ranging from $5,000 to over $30,000 per student per year.
• Most are point solutions that target a single moment or season of life without addressing the interconnected nature of life readiness.
• Around 25% have material business model conflicts, especially those related to post-secondary planning and financial aid.  Conflicts include generating revenue from low quality colleges, selling student data to low quality vendors, having an incentive for students to take on debt, and/or enabling the marketing of low-quality employment opportunities.
• There is no statistically significant difference between for-profits and non-profits. In other words, for-profits and nonprofits in our data set have similar rates of strong evidence, breadth, and business model conflict.

How does this happen? There are two root-causes.

First, schools, not parents and students, purchase most solutions. They tend to prioritize products that make their lives easier vs. what delivers the best value for students and parents. They buy in bulk, solving for a “typical” student rather than an individual student. Buying in bulk also advantages large service providers vs. potentially more innovative niche providers.

Second, education services is full of anti-competitive behaviors. We’ll first describe nonprofits and then discuss “EdTech” and investors.

Education Nonprofits

While nonprofits in education often position themselves as mission-driven alternatives to for-profit actors, many engage in anti-competitive behaviors that stifle innovation, limit student impact, and entrench status-quo systems. These behaviors often go unchecked because nonprofits are seen as benevolent—but in practice, their market power, funding structures, and institutional relationships can make them as (or more) competitively protective and resistant to disruption as any corporation.

Here are nine examples:

Capture of Public and Philanthropic Dollars
‍Many education nonprofits receive the lion’s share of available public grants and philanthropic dollars, often due to legacy relationships, institutional familiarity, or perceived safety. This chokes off capital for newer, more innovative entrants that may offer better solutions but lack the same connections.

Opaque and Self-Referencing Metrics
‍Nonprofits often use vague, proprietary impact metrics that are not externally validated, making it hard to assess whether they’re truly effective. This prevents accountability and disadvantages more transparent or outcomes-based competitors.

Exclusive Partnerships and Policy Influence
Some nonprofits build exclusive contracts with districts or states, crowding out competitors, or even help write policy that structurally benefits their own programs. This limits choice and locks schools into dated or ineffective models.

Resistance to Integration
Rather than building open systems, many nonprofits operate in silos and do not integrate with other platforms or providers—forcing schools to choose between “all or nothing” options rather than a modular, student-centered ecosystem.

Conflicts of Interest with Low Quality Institutions
Some nonprofits partner with low-ROI colleges or training programs in exchange for marketing dollars or data access, even if those institutions leave students worse off—undermining the very mission of student advancement.

Free Platform Dominance
Large nonprofits offer "free" curriculum, programming, or resources that schools widely adopt. While sometimes providing value, these organizations can essentially dictate market terms through their scale, making it nearly impossible for innovative paid alternatives to gain traction even when they demonstrate superior student outcomes. Schools become dependent on "free" resources, abandoning budget allocations that would support a competitive marketplace.

Data Gatekeeping
Nonprofit assessment organizations often control vast stores of student data while imposing restrictive terms on its use. A commercial entity offering similar services would face scrutiny under antitrust laws, but nonprofits effectively monopolize educational data under the banner of "student privacy," preventing the development of more effective, AI-driven personalization tools.

Standards-Setting Capture
Nonprofits frequently dominate educational standards committees and policy advocacy positions, creating guidelines that align with their existing offerings rather than enabling technological innovation. This creates invisible barriers to market entry as new solutions must conform to standards designed around legacy systems.

Philanthropic Favoritism
Major foundations often direct funding to large, entrenched nonprofits while not considering innovative commercial solutions with stronger evidence bases. This creates an uneven playing field where nonprofits receive stable funding while innovators often struggle to break through.

This anti-competitive environment ultimately harms students by slowing the development of transformative technologies that could better prepare them for the emerging economy. A healthier ecosystem would judge educational solutions on their demonstrated ability to develop students' career-and-life readiness, regardless of their tax status.

EdTech & Investors

The EdTech market suffers from chronic innovation paralysis due to misaligned incentives and fragmented approaches. Investors continue funding incremental improvements to outdated systems rather than reimagining how education could function in our modern economy. While venture capital floods into administrative tools and siloed point solutions, true transformative technologies struggle for support. EdTech entrepreneurs, often former educators themselves, focus on solving immediate pain points for their colleagues without questioning fundamental assumptions about how learning should work. Meanwhile, the artificial division between K-12, higher education, and workforce development investments prevents the creation of seamless solutions that follow students through their entire journey.

Philanthropic capital, theoretically positioned to take bigger risks, has largely failed to catalyze breakthrough innovation. Despite rhetoric about "venture philanthropy," most foundations prefer backing proven approaches with modest ambitions rather than moonshot ideas with transformative potential. The result is a landscape cluttered with marginally useful tools that neither challenge the status quo nor meaningfully improve outcomes for students or employers.

This dysfunction explains why, despite billions invested, education remains one of the few sectors where productivity declines as spending increases - a market failure that particularly disadvantages those without privileged access to social capital.

How do we break the cartel?

It’s actually straightforward:

Regulators: Apply equal scrutiny to nonprofits as for profits.

Purchasers: Don’t buy or accept services from nonprofits or vendors that are conflicted or use anti-competitive practices.

Funders: Stop excluding for-profits by default. Fund what delivers results for young adults—regardless of tax status. Migrate to success-based grants where funding is directly tied to student outcomes.

Investors: Take more risk and champion breakthrough innovation.

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Real-World Precedents: The democratization of financial tools

Over the last 25 years changes in financial regulation—such as open banking frameworks and more flexible licensing—created new opportunities for disruptors outside large financial incumbents to build consumer-friendly tools outside the traditional banking system.  New entrants replaced high fees and exclusionary practices with user-friendly, low-cost tools accessible to everyday Americans. Result included:

• Unbanked households dropped from 8.2% to 4.5% (2011–2021)
• Cost per trade fell from ~$7 to $0
• Minimum to invest dropped from $500+ to $1 or less
• Investor participation rose from 53% to 61% (2016–2023)
• Over 100M users now access free credit monitoring, investing, and budgeting tools

While legitimate concerns remain around debt risk and appropriate oversight, it’s undeniable that this transformation has opened the door for millions of middle- and lower-income Americans to bank, budget, and invest for the first time—making financial empowerment more achievable than ever.

9. AI can be a Force Multiplier for Good or Evil. Let’s Choose Good.

Undirected AI poses significant risks to students navigating the transition from school to adulthood. It can subtly replace human relationships with digital interactions, weakening the development of social confidence and support networks that are essential in life and work. This risk is particularly acute for young men, who are disproportionately reluctant to seek advice and support. AI tools become crutches offering quick answers and short-term progress while inadvertently undermining the deeper learning, critical thinking, and real-world competence students need to thrive. Finally, there is a risk that AI will simply make it more efficient to distribute the same outdated, misleading, and inaccurate guidance that already leaves many students unprepared for the realities of post-secondary education and the workforce.

AI also has the potential to address two unmet needs that have held students back for decades: high-quality coaching and meaningful human connection.

Properly channeled AI can provide hyper-personalized, ever-present coaching—specific, actionable, and grounded in a student’s actual goals, context, and progress. It can help students build plans, assess options, and navigate key decisions with clarity. But its real power may be as a co-coach - amplifying the reach and impact of human educators, counselors, and mentors. While people bring empathy, lived experience, and personal rapport, AI brings consistency, breadth, and real-time responsiveness. It can draft recommendations, summarize progress, and even suggest the most relevant questions to ask, freeing up human coaches to go deeper where it matters most to a particular student.

AI can also foster human connection—something most students desperately need but rarely receive. It can surface shared interests, goals, or experiences to make introductions more natural. It can help students draft outreach messages, frame thoughtful asks, and build the confidence to engage. Crucially, AI can also contextualize why a connection, opportunity, or resource might be a good fit—or not—based on what it knows about the student’s aspirations and readiness.

For this vision to become reality, several things must be true. The AI should base guidance on high-quality, validated resources—not just content, but also opportunities and relationships that are worth a student’s time. It must be trained to prioritize truth, context, and practical next steps, not just polished language. And it must operate within a human-centered system that fosters agency, safeguards trust, and pairs technology with real people invested in students' growth.

When done wrong AI will exacerbate the worst of what of our broken system has to offer. Done well AI could be the great equalizer and one of most important avenues to prepare young adults for life.

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Real-World Precedents: Backrs

Backrs uses AI to amplify human connection by making it easier, more purposeful, and more impactful. The platform improves relationship matching—not just based on obvious traits like school or career, but by surfacing shared values, experiences, goals, or identities that might otherwise be missed. It reduces friction in forming relationships by guiding users through thoughtful introductions, surfacing mutually useful topics, and connecting students with peers, near-peers, and professionals best suited to their needs in that moment. AI also helps both students and professionals get the most out of their limited time together—offering structured agendas, taking notes, and even prompting next steps—so that every conversation becomes a meaningful step forward. In doing so, Backrs doesn’t replace connection; it removes the barriers to it.

10. Modernize Mentorship - Make Backing a Civic Expectation

One of the most scalable and cost-effective strategies to close opportunity gaps is deeply human: relationships. Raj Chetty’s research shows that students with a broader range of diverse connections are more likely to graduate, earn higher salaries, and secure meaningful employment. Despite these benefits, millions of students, particularly those from low- and middle-income backgrounds, navigate school and early careers without any significant mentorship from adults outside their immediate family or school. This is in large part because our schools, neighborhoods, and communities are increasingly economically segregated.

While traditional mentorship models can help, they are becoming antiquated as our economy evolves rapidly and our society becomes further stratified. Most Americans love the idea of mentorship, but few report positive experiences or material impact. The steady decline in volunteering rates reflects a broader sentiment that the conventional mentorship model often fails to provide tangible benefits to either party.

We suggest introducing a revitalized approach to mentorship called "backing," which distinguishes itself in four key ways:

• Anchored in students’ goals and aspirations: "Backing" is fundamentally about empowering students to achieve their own goals. It prioritizes students’ aspirations and invites mentors to put their own skills, experiences, resources, and connections to use. This approach increases student engagement and investment by aligning with their personal ambitions while also providing mentors with a more fulfilling experience as they see real impacts from their guidance.
• Catalyzed and supported by technology: We observe two fatal flaws with traditional mentoring. First, most mentoring models “match” mentors and mentees based on a superficial understanding of both parties. Second, they are ultimately limited by time and place. A student graduates (or is absent), a mentor gets a new job (or has to travel on that particular Tuesday) and the connection quickly dissolves. Instead, we can harness technology to address both. Leverage AI to match individuals based on shared interests, identities, and affinities, as well as track records, career experiences, and fit. Then, combine the best of in person connection with technology to transcend geographical boundaries.

• Access to broader weak tie network: Research consistently shows that it’s often the weak ties in one's network that lead to new opportunities. Traditional one-on-one mentorships fail to leverage this power. "Backing" introduces students to a wider range of connections, expanding their network beyond immediate strong ties to include a diversity of individuals who share insights, model mindsets and habits, and open doors.
• Bolstered by a handful of sponsors: Sponsorship invites mentors to actively create opportunities for mentees. These sponsors are typically successful professionals with extensive social capital, positioned to not just advise but directly facilitate career advancements.

To make the shift from traditional mentorship to backing, two needs emerge:

First, we need better alternatives for successful people to pay it forward. They need a wider range of options that are convenient, easier, more rewarding, and leverage their unique talents.

Second, we need a refined social compact. Similar to expectations like voting or recycling, backing should become a civic duty. Employers, churches, and professional associations should expect, incentivize, and reward their members to back young adults.

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Real-World Precedents: Backrs

Backrs improves on traditional mentoring in six key ways:

1. Flexible formats – Mentors can engage asynchronously (e.g., replying to a post) or synchronously (e.g., Zoom calls), depending on their availability.
2. Student-initiated – Students request support when they need it, making engagement more timely and relevant.
3. Multi-mentor model – Students build a panel of several backrs, each offering unique insight or support.
4. Affinity-based connections – Matching is based on shared identity, interests, or goals, often leading to stronger connections.
5. Integrated tools – Goal tracking, messaging, and resource sharing make it easier for mentors to offer practical, focused help.
6. Human support – Trained success coaches help both students and professionals navigate challenges and get the most out of their mentoring relationships.

11. Invite and Incent Employers to Grow (not Recruit) Talent

Employers must stop waiting for talent to be delivered. Instead, they must start growing it. It is in their interest and should be part of a modernized social contract. We should invite them to be an integral part of both the high school and college experiences. If the NCAA, pro sports, and athletic brands can engage, coach, and recruit middle school prospects, why can’t accounting firms, health systems, and manufacturers also engage high school students?

Getting there will require changes in mindset from schools and employers.

From policy makers and educators we propose:

• High schools should activate local employers to create exposure, provide career experiences, and invite employees to apprentice, sponsor, and mentor students. Increase formal credit given for internships and fellowships.
• Offer tax credits and/or other incentives to employers who provide internships, apprenticeships, and co-op programs for students.
• Every university should evolve to become a co-op university. The model is effective and is needed more than ever. Universities of the future must blend the best of traditional liberal arts education with the best of real-world experiences.
• At minimum, universities should partner with high quality employers in every college, including liberal arts, to deliver at least 2 internships for every student while enrolled.

For employers we propose:

• Be radically transparent about what you actually want in new hires, not vague requirements or generic credentials.
• Engage early and often with young adults, not just in recruiting juniors and seniors, but mentoring freshmen, reviewing resumes, giving feedback, and sponsoring real-world experiences.
• Tell applicants the truth about why you rejected their applications.
• Reject one page resumes and demand a more expansive “portfolio of achievement” that reflects a longer period of time and brings out the unique strengths of each individual. If using technology to assess fit, at least apply it to the fullest set of potential data.
• Co-create many more experiences that expose and prepare talent — short-term paid projects, shadowing, internships, and career simulations.
• Activate employees to act as liaisons for their career paths, industries, and companies. Invite, encourage, and incent them to engage with young adults to share their experiences and support.

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Real-World Precedents:  BlueSky (BCBS Tennessee and ETSU)

The BlueSky Tennessee Institute is a partnership between BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and East Tennessee State University offering an accelerated 27-month bachelor’s degree in computing. Students take college classes on-site at BlueCross’s Chattanooga campus while working part-time alongside professionals in tech roles. The program targets high school graduates, especially from underserved backgrounds, and combines paid work experience with a debt-free path to a degree. Participants receive intensive mentorship, hands-on training, and a guaranteed job offer at BlueCross upon graduation. In fact, 100% of their first graduating class accepted roles at BCBS TN. The model blends higher education with workforce development, creating a direct pipeline into high-demand tech careers.

12. Portfolios, Not Resumes

A single-page resume simply cannot encapsulate a decade of personal growth, evolving mindsets, or true competence. Instead, we need dynamic, living portfolios that genuinely reflect the depth and breadth of each student.

Resumes are artifacts of a credential-based system — one-dimensional, static, and often gamed. In reality, they have one legitimate purpose - signaling conventional achievements. That can be useful for the 5%-10% of students that check every box. A student with a strong GPA in a rigorous major from a selective school with experiences at prestigious internships will stand out. But for the other ~95% of students, resumes have little-to-no useful information with respect to competence, experiences, or mindsets..

Resumes are even more problematic when considering that algorithms screen most applicants to universities, internships, and jobs. The proliferation of job boards that encourage applying to hundreds or thousands of jobs is exacerbating the challenge. Universities and employers often use strict resume screening to avoid interviewing any weak candidates. They are willing to make what statisticians call "Type II errors" – missing good candidates in their attempt to filter out bad ones.

We envision a better, fairer, more useful standard: a dynamic, longitudinal portfolio that showcases not just credentials but accomplishments, growth, context, character, skills, and impact. A “highlight reel of becoming” so to speak that includes academic transcripts, portfolios of creative output, recommendation letters, and evidence of competence through achievement.

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Real-World Precedents: Modernized Resume Screening

Leading employers are beginning to use a range of strategies to screen/assess candidates beyond resumes:

• Neuroscience-based games that measure cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, and problem-solving skills through interactive puzzles rather than self-reported experience.
• AI-powered video interviews that analyze verbal responses, facial expressions, and speech patterns to assess candidate qualities beyond what's visible on paper.
• Professional profile data mining that leverages existing digital footprints on professional networks instead of requiring custom-formatted documents.
• Algorithmic matching systems that compare candidates' traits to patterns identified in a company's top performers rather than relying on stated qualifications. Work simulation assessments that require candidates to complete actual job-related tasks or solve real business problems, demonstrating abilities rather than claiming them.

While these strategies have the potential to reward demonstrated ability over pedigree, we should also note at least two meaningful risks. First, use of AI could favor candidates who resemble current employees or come from privileged backgrounds, all while operating in algorithmic "black boxes" that make their decision criteria difficult to scrutinize.  Second, they make securing employment even more difficult for a young adult with strong potential that hasn’t had the benefit of  adequate preparation. If a student hasn’t built the skills, self-awareness, or confidence to perform under pressure, navigate ambiguity, or communicate clearly — then these new screening tools may be even more likely filter them out before they ever meet a human.

13. Create a Flourish Fund for Every Young Adult in America

Empower every high school and post-secondary student who demonstrates meaningful commitment—whether through academic performance, paid work, or community service—with $2,500 annually to invest in their own growth. Funds could be applied toward a broad range of life-readiness experiences including extracurriculars, academic support, work-based learning, and summer programs. They could also be used to cover everyday needs associated with education and savings to provide margin against unforeseen challenges.

This proposal addresses several structural realities outlined in this paper:

First, schools cannot—and were never designed to—deliver all seven assets students need to succeed. At most, schools focus on one: academic foundations. Yet the other six—Ownership & Hustle, Adaptability, Life Skills, Pathfinding, Financial Power, and Social Capital—are equally essential and are most often built through activities outside the traditional classroom. These include sports, music, internships, career exploration programs, enrichment camps, and other formative experiences that frequently require time, transportation, and money.

Second, most of the time that shapes a young person’s development is spent outside the classroom. Students spend less than 15% of their waking hours in school. If we are serious about preparing students for life, we must invest in how they use the other 85%.

Third, financial flexibility matters. Rather than prescribe a fixed set of services, a Flourish Fund would provide students and families with agency to invest in what’s most valuable for their unique goals and context. This reflects the diversity of student needs and the sheer scale of available programs and providers—many of which schools cannot realistically navigate or manage. Schools can curate and recommend, but they should not have to control every decision. Fungible capital enables personalization at scale and relieves institutions from the impossible task of directing every student to every opportunity.

Fourth, this approach could catalyze a wave of innovation. Giving students real purchasing power will incentivize the development of new, higher-quality offerings from both nonprofit and for-profit providers. The market for youth development is fragmented and underfunded. With increased demand and accessible capital, we can expect a more responsive ecosystem—new programs, better technology, improved service models, and greater diversity of choice for students and families. A more dynamic and accountable provider landscape would help meet students where they are and move us beyond one-size-fits-all solutions.

Beyond developmental value, the Flourish Fund has a strong financial rationale:

• Research shows that even modest savings or discretionary funds improve college enrollment, persistence, and completion.
• Financial margin reduces student attrition and absenteeism—two of the most expensive and disruptive challenges facing districts.
• Creates context for students to build real financial acumen by making and managing meaningful decisions with real dollars.

While $2,500 per year may seem significant, it represents less than 10% of what we already spend per student in most secondary and post-secondary systems. This funding could be carved from existing budgets by reducing inefficiencies in intervention programs, duplicative supports, or underperforming vendor contracts.

A number of policy mechanisms are available to implement a program of this nature, from public stipends and tax credits to school-linked education savings accounts or hybrid public-private funds. The essential idea is simple: provide committed students with modest, flexible capital to take greater ownership of their growth. Done right, this fund could unlock access, improve outcomes, lower long-term costs, and stimulate a more innovative, student-centered support ecosystem.

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Real-World Precedents: Dozens

Over the past two decades, stipend-based programs have been piloted across dozens of domains in both high school and college—ranging from academics and tutoring to sports, music, arts, and career development. These initiatives consistently demonstrate strong outcomes: increased participation, improved school engagement, higher retention and graduation rates, and positive effects on student confidence and aspirations. Importantly, these benefits have come with very low administrative burden, especially in models that give students and families broad discretion over how to use the funds. Programs like Thrive Scholars, Minnesota’s Summer Academic Enrichment Program, and Jack Kent Cooke’s Young Scholars have shown that flexible, student-directed microgrants or stipends can help close opportunity gaps and level the playing field. Backrs has also empowered thousands of high-performing, under-resources students with a $50-100 per month stipend as part of its Scholars program. As a policy tool, stipends offer a scalable, efficient, and empowering way to support youth—especially those from low-income backgrounds—by funding the enrichment experiences they choose, not just those the system offers.

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No more excuses. No more time.

We know the system is broken. We know what’s at stake.

The question is no longer what should change—it’s who will lead it.

Will our leaders cling to legacy systems that leave millions behind? Or will they have the courage to build something new—something worthy of past and future generations?

We’ve laid out thirteen bold proposals. Each is actionable. Each is grounded in reality. And together, they can reignite the American Dream.

If you hold power—use it. If you hold influence—wield it. If you care—act.

Let’s get to work.

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Addendum 1: Facts & Figures

What is the education-to-employment system?

The secondary and post-secondary education to employment system is the interconnected network that guides students from high school through further education to careers, including approximately 24,000 public high schools, 7,000 private high schools, 4,000 colleges and universities, 900 community colleges, 3,500 trade schools, and employer-led early career initiatives from over 10 million businesses. This system annually serves approximately 15 million secondary students and 19 million post-secondary students in the US.

Here's an estimated count of entities in each major category of the education-to-employment system:

Secondary Education

• Public high schools (~24,000 in the US)
• Private high schools (~7,000 in the US)
• Vocational/technical high schools (~1,300 in the US)
• Charter schools (~7,500 in the US)
• Alternative schools (~6,000 in the US)
• Homeschooling networks (~4,000 organized networks)

Post-Secondary Education

• Universities (public and private) (~2,700 4-year institutions in the US)
• Community colleges (~1,000 in the US)
• Technical and vocational colleges (~700 in the US)
• Trade schools (~3,000 in the US)
• Apprenticeship programs (~22,000 registered programs in the US)
• Online education providers (~500 major providers)
• Professional certification bodies (~900 major certification bodies)
• Military training programs (~200 specialized programs)

Employment Connection Institutions

• Career counseling services (~5,000 independent services)
• Job placement centers (~3,000 centers)
• Workforce development agencies (~550 local workforce boards)
• Employment offices (~2,500 state and local offices)
• Internship programs (~100,000+ formal programs)
• Cooperative education programs (~900 institutions with co-op programs)
• Career fairs (~10,000 annual events)
• Recruitment agencies (~20,000 firms)
• Industry-education partnerships (~5,000 formal partnerships)

Early Career Employer Activities

• Campus recruiting operations (~12,000 companies with formal programs)
• Entry-level hiring programs (~50,000 companies with structured programs)
• Internship/co-op providers (~100,000 companies)
• Rotational leadership programs (~2,000 major programs)
• Corporate training departments (~30,000 dedicated departments)
• Technical bootcamps and accelerators (~500 major programs)
• University relations offices (~5,000 companies with formal offices)

Nonprofit Student Support Organizations

• College access programs (~4,000 organizations)
• Scholarship foundations and providers (~13,000 organizations)
• Mentoring organizations (~5,000 formal programs)
• College success programs (~2,000 organizations)
• Career development nonprofits (~3,500 organizations)
• Educational equity organizations (~2,000 organizations)
• Student leadership development programs (~3,000 programs)
• STEM education and career initiatives (~2,500 programs)
• First-generation college student support organizations (~1,500 organizations)
• Financial literacy programs (~3,000 organizations)

Regulatory and Support Bodies

• Federal education departments/agencies (~15 major departments)
• State education departments (~50 in the US)
• Local education authorities (~14,000 school districts)
• Accreditation agencies (~80 recognized agencies)
• Professional licensing boards (~200 national boards, ~1,000 state boards)
• Economic development agencies (~3,000 local and regional)
• Student financial aid organizations (~1,500 organizations)

Private Sector Contributors

• Employers offering formal training (~100,000+ companies)
• Industry associations (~8,000 national and regional)
• Chambers of commerce (~4,000 in the US)
• Labor unions (~500 major unions with education initiatives)
• Professional associations (~7,000 with education components)

Note: These are approximations based on available data and industry reports. Numbers can vary significantly depending on how entities are counted and categorized. Some entities may overlap between categories.

Less than 20% of students are prepared for great careers

We believe that “less than 20% of students are prepared to secure jobs with strong prospects for growth, stability, or satisfaction within 2–6 years of high school.”

We hold an unapologetically high standard for great jobs and careers. A job meets the “strong prospects” threshold when one full-time worker can reasonably provide for a family, invest in their future, weather financial shocks, and find personal value in their work—without unsustainable stress or risk.

Jobs and careers that meet these standards exist at the intersection of five primary tracks, including trades/vocational, professional, and entrepreneurial tracks, and roughly 70 career paths. But most Americans never end up on these tracks. In fact, ~120mm of the ~170 million working Americans (71%) work in low-and-semi skilled jobs that do not meet the criteria listed above. Over 50% of these workers have at least some college education.

The data says that the vast majority are unprepared. As mentioned previously, >50% of college grads get jobs that don’t require a college degree. Few of these are attractive jobs. Employers tell us young adults aren’t prepared. And only ~11% of postsecondary students feel prepared.

More detail on defining a high quality job and career

High quality jobs and careers deliver the following:

1. Financially Support a Family

Family-Sustaining Income: Provide earnings sufficient to support at least a two-child household in a middle-cost region—including costs for high-quality housing, food, transportation, healthcare, childcare, and education.

Wealth-Building Capacity: Enable long-term savings, home ownership, and investment toward retirement without requiring extreme sacrifice or secondary employment.

Resilience to Shocks: Offer the margin to handle periods of income loss, caregiving responsibilities, or unexpected expenses without immediate financial crisis.

2. Long-Term Stability

Reliable Employment: Jobs with historically low layoff rates and steady demand, even through economic cycles. Or high ability to find new opportunities if job loss occurs.

Secure Benefits: Access to health insurance, paid leave, retirement plans, and unemployment protections.

Credential Clarity: Clear training pathways and qualifications that maintain value across time and employers.

3. Opportunities for Growth

Upward Mobility: Career paths with advancement opportunities and meaningful wage growth.

Adaptability: Opportunities to acquire new skills and remain competitive as industries evolve.

Sector Health: Belong to industries expected to expand or maintain relevance for at least the next decade.

4. Potential for Personal Satisfaction

Purpose & Autonomy: Daily work that provides a sense of meaning, impact, and self-direction.

Reasonable Demands: Manageable hours, mental and physical demands, and flexibility to balance work and life responsibilities.

Positive Work Culture: Environments that support dignity, respect, development, and inclusion.

Value of college degree against student debt

Underemployment Rate for College Graduates

Definition: % of recent college graduates (typically ages 22–27) working in jobs that do not require a college degree.

Primary Sources:

• Federal Reserve Bank of New York:
• Labor Market for Recent College Graduates Tracks underemployment, wage trends, and job matching for recent grads.
• U.S. Census Bureau & Current Population Survey (CPS):
• Underpins many third-party analyses, including those by Georgetown CEW and Brookings.
• Pew Research Center:
• 10 Facts About Today’s College Graduates Includes historical underemployment estimates back to 1990.
• Burning Glass Institute & Strada Education Network:
• Provide insights into skill alignment and job quality for degree holders.

Student Loan Debt

Definition: Total outstanding federal and private student loan balances across all borrowers.

Primary Sources:

• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED):
• Student Loans Owned and Securitized, Outstanding Covers student debt from 2006 onward (monthly).
• U.S. Department of Education – Federal Student Aid Portfolio:
• Data Center: Student Loan Portfolio Provides quarterly breakdowns of federal loan volumes dating back to the 1990s.
• The College Board – Trends in Student Aid Reports:
• Trends in Student Aid 2023 Contains annual historical data back to the 1980s, including private loan estimates.
• Upjohn Institute:
• Historical data on student loan trends since 1990, including context on policy changes.

Methodology

Data Modeling in the Chart

• The underemployment line was based on estimates from the NY Fed and Pew for actual points (e.g., 41% in 1990, ~52% today), with interpolation across years to reflect economic cycles (e.g., recessions in 2001, 2008, and 2020).
• The student debt curve was generated using College Board and FRED data for 1990–2024, scaling from ~$24B in 1990 to ~$1.7T in 2024.

10 FACTS

FACT: 52% of college grads are in jobs that don’t require a degree, yet burdened with $1.7T in student debt

Wall Street Journal ArticleSummary: Many college graduates are underemployed in roles not requiring a degree, while collectively owing over $1.7 trillion in student loans.

FACT. ~80% of universities produce graduates who earn less than a skilled tradesperson in their 30s

Peterson’s College ROI Data Summary: Data reveals that the average earnings of graduates from many institutions lag behind skilled tradespeople.

FACT. Students with 2+ internships are twice as likely to find employment within 6 months

Gallup & Strada Internship Study Summary: Strong correlation between internship experience and post-graduation employment outcomes.

FACT. Less than 25% of first-gen college students secure internships

ERIC Education Report Summary: First-generation students face disproportionate barriers in accessing internships critical to career success.

FACT. 88% of employers say recent grads are less prepared for the workforce

Poets & Quants Employer Readiness Survey Summary: Employers cite growing concern about declining preparedness among recent college grads.

FACT. 90% of employers seek evidence of problem-solving skills

Jobspeaker 2024 Job Outlook Summary: Critical thinking and problem-solving remain top skills sought by employers in early-career candidates.

FACT. Nearly half of master’s programs leave students financially worse off

Yahoo Finance Article Summary: Many master’s programs have negative financial ROI due to high costs and low wage gains.

FACT. Nearly 25% of bachelor’s degree programs have a negative ROI

FREOPP ROI Analysis Summary: A comprehensive review finds that a significant portion of undergrad programs don’t pay off economically.

FACT. Applicants per job doubled (2022–2024); many submit 100+ applications

Jobspeaker 2024 Job OutlookResume.io Job Application StatsForbes Application Stats Summary: Intense competition has made early-career job hunts increasingly difficult, with widespread application fatigue.

FACT. Most students are routed to tech job boards despite 60–80% of jobs coming via networking

Business.com Hiring Study Summary: Overreliance on job boards fails students, as referrals and networking dominate actual hiring outcomes.

FACT. <3% of qualified applicants are interviewed for top business, tech, and healthcare jobs

Vested Blog Hiring Funnel Data Summary: For elite jobs, even qualified candidates face daunting odds and rarely receive feedback.

FACT. Employers spend $5k–$25k per hire and >$100B on reskilling the workforce

Brocoders Recruiting Cost StudyStatista U.S. Training Industry Stats Summary: Significant investment in early-career hiring and reskilling—yet persistent workforce shortages remain.

Demand for more transparent college outcomes

1. Georgetown University CEW – Anthony Carnevale

Title: A First Try at ROI: Ranking 4,500 Colleges (2020)

Summary: This report ranks U.S. colleges by return on investment, using earnings and debt data. Carnevale argues that greater transparency is needed to help students evaluate the value of postsecondary education and make informed decisions.

Link: https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/CollegeROI/

2. Urban Institute – Sandy Baum

Title: Student Debt: Rhetoric and Realities of Higher Education Financing (2016)

Summary: Baum stresses the importance of transparency in student debt and education outcomes. She calls for institutions to share clear data on what students can expect after graduation—particularly with respect to earnings and debt burden.

Link: https://www.urban.org/research/publication/student-debt-rhetoric-and-realities-higher-education-financing

3. AEI – Andrew P. Kelly

Title: Graduation Rates and Accountability: What We Can Learn from the Accountability Movement in K-12 Education (2011)

Summary: Kelly argues that higher education should adopt a more robust system of accountability similar to K-12 reforms. He advocates for more transparent and standardized data on graduation rates and post-college outcomes.

Link: https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/graduation-rates-and-accountability-what-we-can-learn-from-the-accountability-movement-in-k-12-education/

4. Brookings Institution – Isabel Sawhill et al.

Title: Grading Higher Education: Giving Consumers the Information They Need (2009)

Summary: This Brookings report calls for improved consumer information about colleges, arguing that existing tools offer incomplete or inconsistent data. It promotes standardized, comparable metrics on cost, quality, and outcomes.

Link: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/12_higher_ed_long.pdf

5. Third Way – Ben Cecil

Title: Transparency Is the Name of the Game for Graduate Students (2023)

Summary: Cecil critiques the lack of outcome data for graduate programs and advocates for reforms to require schools to report cost, debt, and earnings information. The piece argues this transparency is essential for accountability and student protection.

Link: https://www.thirdway.org/memo/transparency-is-the-name-of-the-game-for-graduate-students

Addendum 2: How Life Preparedness Affect Students

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