Working to Learn: Disrupting the Divide Between College and Career Pathways for Young People

By Noel S. Anderson and Lisette Nieves

This book disrupts the false dichotomy of college versus career by showing how young people and the programs created to serve them integrate the worlds of college and career readiness as students work to learn against the odds and strive toward lives that matter to them. Work-based learning at each stage of the K–college experience is crucial to the development of young people. Through analysis of national policies on college readiness and work-based learning, as well as through illustrative case studies of young people in work-based learning programs, the authors highlight the programs, voices, and experiences of young people from middle school through college. Through interviews, participating students share their views, aspirations, and preparation for both college and career.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Release date: Jan 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9783030353506

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© The Author(s) 2020

N. S. Anderson, L. NievesWorking to Learnhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35350-6_1

1. College for All and Work-Based Learning: Two Reconcilable Differences

Noel S. Anderson¹   and Lisette Nieves¹  

(1)

Administration, Leadership and Technology, New York University, New York, NY, USA

Noel S. Anderson (Corresponding author)

Email: [e-mail]

Lisette Nieves

Email: [e-mail]

We, the people of the United States, are in a college- and career-readiness crisis. Over the last few decades, while college access has expanded for many more individuals, federal student loan debt held by U.S. adults has ballooned to $1.5 trillion and approximately $119 billion for private loans, respectively, and college persistence and completion rates are not where they should be, given the level of personal and financial sacrifice of college goers (Miller, Campbell, Cohen, & Hancock, 2019). Approximately 76% of students complete four-year private colleges and 65.7% complete four-year public colleges. But when you look at two-year public college completion rates, numbers fall to just 39.2%, and the completion rate for four-year private for-profit colleges is at 37.3% (Shapiro et al., 2018).

Examining these numbers according to racial and ethnic groups, Asian students have the highest overall completion rate at 70.3%, white students complete at a rate of 67.1%, Black students at 41%, and Latinx students at 49.6% (Shapiro et al., 2018)¹. But looking closely at two-year institutions (known primarily as community colleges ), where the vast majority of Black and Latinx students enroll, the completion rate of Asian students was 49.1%, white students was 48.1%, Latinx students was 35.7%, and Black students was trailing at 27.5% (Shapiro et al., 2018).

Coupled with this college pipeline crisis is an alarmingly high youth unemployment rate. Nationwide, the youth unemployment rate for 16–24-year-olds is 9.1% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019). For Blacks between the ages of 16 and 24, it is approximately 14.6%, nearly double the rate for non-Hispanic whites at 8% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019). For Latinx in this age group, it is slightly above 11% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019). Lack of employment is leaving young people without the early work experiences that research shows is crucial to their success as adults. This crisis is more acute for Black and Latinx young people, who tend to be the most under-credentialed and unemployed in this nation. Without the skills from successful college and early work experiences, young adults are ill-prepared to succeed in our labor market, unable to contribute to our economy in meaningful ways, and risk not having sustainable wages to live the lives that they would have reason to value. The map below, for instance, shows how youth unemployment is a regional affair. The access of young people to work is shaped by industry and geography (Fig. 1.1).

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Fig. 1.1

Youth unemployment, state by state, ages 16–24. (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016)

The Rise of Middle Skills Jobs

As this crisis grows, automation and other technological advancements are transforming middle-skill jobs. Middle-skills is defined as jobs requiring a minimum of a high school diploma, some postsecondary credential, usually an associate’s degree or equivalent, but not necessarily a four-year degree. In 2015, 53% of jobs in the United States were defined as middle-skills, a number that will reduce only slightly to 48% by 2024 (National Skills Coalition, 2017). Alarmingly, while low-skills jobs and high-skills jobs have an abundance of available labor, middle-skills jobs are outpacing their available workforce, meaning fewer Americans are trained than there are jobs available in these industries.

According to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, all of the growth of net new good jobs in the non-BA economy has been in middle-skills jobs (Carnevale, Strohl, Ridley, & Gulish, 2018). Half of all middle-skills jobs are considered good jobs, with high and stable median incomes for those with or without a bachelor’s degree. Careers in blue-collar industries, like advanced manufacturing, transportation and utilities, and construction, along with jobs in skilled service industries like financial services, education, and hospitality are on the rise. An aging population and a booming tech industry have surged the need for skilled and credentialed healthcare technicians, computer programmers, surveying and mapping technicians, and IT personnel (Carnevale et al., 2018). But, according to a report by Burning Glass, Accenture , and Harvard Business School , the strongest middle-skills jobs in terms of long-term job skills sustainability are in technical sales and sales management, computer and mathematical occupations (IT specialists, advanced manufacturing), business and financial services (bookkeeping, HR specialists, auditing clerks), and healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (Fuller, Burrowes, Raman, Restuccia, & Young, 2014).

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the top five fastest-growing professions over the next ten years will be in middle-skills jobs including (from first to fifth in ranking): solar photovoltaic (PV) installers, wind turbine service technicians, home healthcare aides, personal care aides, and occupational therapy assistants (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019). It is important to note that these statistics reflect the whole of the United States, while job availability and industry growth vary region by region (Fig. 1.2).

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Fig. 1.2

Tech job growth, state by state. (Source: The Computing Technology Industry Association, 2019)

For example, the map above displays changes in tech employment state by state, demonstrating the regions (West Coast, Southeast) where availability of middle-skills jobs in this high-growth industry lay.

Yet young people are still confined to low-wage, low-skilled work at the highest risk for automation and, ultimately, job elimination (Fig. 1.3).

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Fig. 1.3

Highest industry employment for youth, state by state, ages 16–24. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2019)

Even as middle-skills, high-growth industries and jobs—predominantly in manufacturing, technology, and healthcare—are giving rise to new labor opportunities, workforce training and postsecondary institutions are finding challenges in preparing and delivering workers for this demand . A gulf is widening in the workforce between those who receive the necessary education, training, or retraining needed to fill positions and those who are forced toward a decreasing pool of lower-wage, low-skills work. The other challenge is that employers have six million open jobs they are struggling to fill in the United States alone, leaving well-paying jobs without the requisite talent (Engler, Pritzker, Alden, & Taylor-Kale, 2018). Nearly half of American small businesses report not being able to find qualified workers for their open positions (Rampell, 2016). Further , young people who seek to fill these jobs experience unclear educational pathways and credentialing systems, as well as large price tags on postsecondary programs.

Root Causes of the College- and Career-Readiness Crisis

There are root causes of the college- and career-readiness crisis. First, many of our current challenges can be traced to the fact that our education systems were created for a different type of American economy and labor market than the current one. Second, deepening socioeconomic inequalities, such as poor K-12 secondary school systems and labor market discrimination , have created new barriers that stand in the way of large swaths of young people achieving success.

Finally, the decades-long public tensions between the College for All consensus and School-to-Work (STW) campaign illustrate well-intentioned but misguided understandings about the relationship between education and employment on the part of educators and public policymakers, which has created additional barriers to solving this crisis. Consequently, in our typical zero-sum approach to educational policymaking in the United States and our attempts to distance ourselves from the soft bigotry of low expectations, the College for All consensus eclipsed the School-to-Work campaign, forcing policymakers and educators to slow down the promise and progress of work-based learning.

Outdated and Outpaced Education Systems

There is a clear mismatch in how our education systems are preparing young people to meet the current demands of the labor market. Far too few young people are attaining the skills that will allow them to be successful in the labor market , as is clear from the simple fact that the unemployment rate for young adults remains twice what it is for adults; in August 2019, the unemployment rate was 9.1% for those ages 16 to 24 and just 3% for those ages 25 and older (U.S. Department of Labor, 2019a). The reason for this mismatch owes much to the fact that our systems for preparing young people to succeed are out of date (Alonso, Anderson, Su, & Theoharis, 2009 ; Anderson & Kharem, 2010). At risk is the long-term competitiveness of our nation’s economy. We need to make fundamental changes to our systems of public education in order to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Our economy and labor market have changed significantly and demand more skills than ever. The days when a high school diploma provided enough preparation for a family-sustaining job are over. This is clearly the case with newer fields, such as information technology and finance. Even manufacturing jobs, long the area where less-educated workers could find family-sustainable employment, increasingly require college-level skills (Selingo, 2017). Our economy now demands a new set of abilities, which include problem solving, familiarity with computers and specialized technologies, and even advanced math and writing for the wide range of middle-skill jobs in growing sectors such as healthcare, mechanical maintenance, and education (Selingo, 2017).

There are two primary sources for young people to attain the twenty-first-century skills that the labor market demands and that will allow them to succeed: college and early employment. A college education is more important than ever. In 2015, the gap between individuals with a bachelor’s degree and a high school diploma peaked, with the former group earning 56% more than the latter (Carnevale, Strohl, Ridley, & Gulish, 2018). Although employment levels largely have rebounded since the end of 2009’s Great Recession, the overwhelming share of new jobs since then has gone to college degree holders. Conversely, income for non-college graduates has declined, even during the economic recovery (Carnevale, Smith, Melton, & Price, 2015). As Anthony Carnevale —research professor and director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce—has stated, the Post-Great Recession economy has divided the country along a fault line demarcated by college education (Carnevale, Jayasundera, & Gulish, 2016, p. 1).

Recognizing these realities, more young people are applying to and enrolling in college than ever. However, this increased interest in and access to college is not translating into success. Despite increased demand, college retention and graduation rates are lower than ever. More than 40% of those who enroll in four-year colleges do not graduate within six years, and more than 70% of those who enroll at two-year schools do not obtain a degree within four years.

New and growing research about work-based learning provides evidence of how the United States might address the challenges facing its education systems through work-based learning approaches. Work-based learning is defined as any learning done in collaboration between schools and employers that focuses on students developing work-related skills (New York State Department of Education, 2019). Our book reveals how a growing number of young people are already embracing work-based learning, by circumstance, at the secondary and community college levels, by integrating work and attending school. Compelling research from Career and Technical Education high schools in New York, for instance, is highlighting that work-based learning is influencing the higher academic persistence and completion rates by Black and Latinx males . Concurrently, more than 70% of community college students across the country both work and attend school, which flies in the face of traditional higher education research that emphasizes the downside of working while in school and has limited data on Black and Latinx students working while in community college (Carnevale, Smith, Melton, & Price, 2015). As a result, most higher education institutions, even community colleges, have not adequately adjusted to accommodate the working student.

Youth Labor Market Challenges

Among the best preparation for the labor market is early employment. Individuals employed at younger ages are more likely to be employed as they age. Young people, with the proper legal protections and labor conditions, of course, also thrive socially with meaningful work environments. In addition, research has shown that the largest part of earnings growth happens for individuals between ages 25 and 35, underlining the importance of being gainfully employed and on a career track during that period (The Economist, 2017).

Unfortunately, finding a job has never been harder for young people in America. Youth unemployment rates are frighteningly high nationwide, a disparity heightened in many key urban areas. In Chicago, the youth unemployment rate is 32.3% for those ages 16 to 21, nearly triple that of all adults at 11.2% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). In areas with generally high unemployment rates, young people face even more dire conditions. In Cleveland, where broader adult unemployment approaches one in five, unemployment among young people between the ages of 16 and 21 nears one in two (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). And even in areas such as Houston, where unemployment rates are relatively low for the broader population at 5.7%, young people still see great difficulty in finding work, with 15.2% unemployed (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014).

These dynamics may have severe consequences for young people, their communities, and our economy. Economists use the term path dependency to describe how early employment is a strong predictor of longer-term labor market success, particularly for younger workers. One study found that jobless teens were less likely to hold jobs four to five years later (Sum et al., 2014). For disadvantaged youth, a lack of employment disproportionately can hinder the chances of a successful career later on in adulthood. Further Michael Stoll highlights that Black and Latinx young people are more likely to encounter discrimination in the labor market , foreclosing their possibilities to acquire enriching work experiences and set them on a path to sustainable wages in adulthood (Stoll, 1999). Separate research has found that whereas middle- and higher-income teens may be able to substitute higher education successfully for early work experience, lower-income youth who do not work at an early age have subsequently lower rates of employment and earnings later as adults (Painter, 2010).

Nonetheless, the benefits are notable when young people do find jobs. One study has shown that for every year teenagers work, their income rises an average of 15% while they are in their 20s (Sum, Khatiwada, McHugh, & Kent, 2013). Other research finds that employment as an adolescent contributes to higher earnings over one’s lifetime; develops non-cognitive skills such as time management and determination; and may even contribute to decreased crime as students spend more time in structured, supervised activities (Heckman, 2000; Painter, 2010; Rothstein, 2007; Sum et al., 2013; Walker & Vilella-Velez, 1992).

The scope of the current youth employment crisis is relatively recent and may be a permanent feature of the new labor market. The recessions of the early 2000s and 2007–2009 took disproportionate tolls on young job seekers. And in both cases, when employment levels improved overall, young job seekers did not share in the recoveries. Much of this has to do with the changing nature of the economy. Many jobs that were once available to young people, particularly those with lower-skill levels , have continued to diminish (Sum, Khatiwada, & McHugh, 2013a).

In addition, labor market studies have documented how many older workers have stayed in the labor market for longer, perhaps as a result of generally lower levels of retirement savings and pension plans, crowding out younger workers. Similar research has noted that older workers now occupy many jobs that were previously more likely to be held by younger workers, particularly in industries such as retail, which have often been gateways jobs for youth (Casselman, 2014). Young people are less able to succeed in finding jobs if they are competing against older workers with more experience. And if youth cannot land their first jobs, then they are increasingly disadvantaged seeking work as they grow older.

Work-Based Learning: The Promise

The late 1980s into the 1990s was viewed as a promising decade for the School-to-Work (STW) movement. Burgeoning concerns about a changing economy and a scathing report in 1988 by Samuel Halperin , titled The Forgotten Half, revealed that more than half of young people do not complete college (American Youth Policy Forum, 1988). These factors spurred Congress, in 1994, to pass the School -to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA). The STWOA was a seven-year initiative developed in response to concerns that the new globalized economy required skills that were beyond what the U.S. educational system was providing to students (New Ways to Work, 2019). Much of the policy and programs emanating from early STWOA policy centered on blue-collar sectors, however. Over time, proponents saw a growing need to expand STW initiatives to white-collar work , given the changing and growing demand in the market.

Early 1990s research found that a large share of high school graduates who did not attend college were unable to settle into long-term jobs. Similarly, new data showed that earnings for non-college goers in the labor market had dropped significantly, and the earnings premium for attending college had risen. Researchers looked at European models of apprenticeships in places such as Germany , for instance, as a solution to this employment floundering, whereby job training and work experiences were incorporated into secondary education. They argued that in addition to providing students with the skills to be more successful in the labor market, connecting school and work in high school would improve student engagement and high school graduation (Gregson, 1995; Sum, Khatiwada, & McHugh, 2013b).

The STWOA was designed to increase career exposure and preparation for American high school students. Through a national STW office, the U.S. Department of Education and Labor provided