Career Pathways in Action: Case Studies from the Field

Career Pathways in Action, a companion to Learning for Careers by Nancy Hoffman and Robert B. Schwartz, offers a detailed, on-the-ground exploration of the Pathways to Prosperity Network’s efforts at state, regional, and local levels. This new book describes a strikingly wide range of systems and efforts that the Pathways Network has helped establish in recent years, and provides a clear and detailed sense of promising ways forward.

Editors Robert B. Schwartz and Amy Loyd include case studies of five different Pathways programs from different regions of the United States: Delaware, Tennessee, the Great Lakes, the rural Central Valley of California, and Marlborough, Massachusetts. The cases illustrate efforts to scale up strategic partnerships; balance state policies with particular regional needs and circumstances; ensure postsecondary success; create continuities between high schools, colleges, and workplaces; and build a STEM early college.

While the programs vary significantly from one another, all of these efforts involve cooperation between political, business, and educational institutions. As such, the portraits in this volume provide fascinating, practical models for the sorts of partnerships that can best serve both young people and the industries in which they hope to find rewarding work.