Evidence-Based

Policy Solutions

Stepping outside of industry and educational demands/priorities, we can take a neutral stance on a vision for Pennsylvania’s future workforce and achieve a unified and collaborative statewide focus.

Some states have taken the lead to develop collective state vision, focused on the work of preparing students for the workforce. For example, in 2017, Washington state launched “Career Connect Washington (CCW),” developing and funding a cohort of 9 regional networks and 22 intermediaries solely dedicated to this work. Resulting state policy included forming an equity strategy to identify and provide service for underserved regions and populations that includes community support, dedicated/sheltered funding for “career connected learning (CCL)” a research project to collect qualitative data on CCL efforts to locate and fill gaps in “students furthest from opportunity,” and the student graduation requirement of minimally one Career & Technical Education (CTE) course.

Rhode Island, with the assistance of its JP Morgan Chase “New Skills for Youth Grant,” award in 2017, set a state goal that “all students will participate in Work-Based Learning (WBL) by the time they graduate high school. Multiple cross-organizational collaborative offerings were developed to assure that those goals can be met while developing a statewide intermediary “Skills for RI’s Future” to assist with business-education partnership connections, and a platform “WBL Navigator” to help access WBL activities, opportunities, and collect data. Participating businesses have state-supported financial incentives, including tax credits and wage reimbursement, to participate in WBL experiences. Disaggregated data is tracked and collected through partnerships between agencies and the “PrepareRI” initiative to “promote streamlined quality, equity of access, and stakeholder accountability.”

It is important to add that WBL has been equated with higher future earnings potential. Mentoring approaches like the National Guard’s ChalleNGe program have demonstrated an average 1.66 ROI, as reported in a longitudinal study by Rand (2012), of lifetime earnings associated with WBL and students in their comprehensive program. 

ACTE (the Association for Career & Technical Education) tracks state policies affecting Career & Technical Education. In their 2022 report, they recognized Colorado, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington States for enacting the most CTE-related policies, over time. The organization tracks five (5) metrics: 1. Industry Partnerships and Work-Based Learning, 2. Funding, 3. Access/Equity, 4. Data, Reporting, and/or Accountability, and 5. Industry-Recognized Credentials. 

While there was an overall decrease of 11% for policies affecting CTE from 2021 to 2022, there was a 25% national increase in policies specifically related to Industry Partnerships and Work-Based Learning. ACTE placed a spotlight on efforts in Connecticut for their support of Career Pathways programs, as well as Idaho's 8th grade "self-directed learner" initiative allowing students to participate in "flexible learning opportunities," and Ohio's tax credit offering for employers and intermediaries offering students aged 19 and under, work-based learning opportunities.