Report: Ensuring Students Find Jobs That Fit

In a June survey from ECMC Group, 78 percent of high school students said it is important to have career plans determined before graduating from high school—but only half have had access to career exploration programs or resources.

Many colleges and universities are looking to blend career exploration throughout a student’s academic life cycle, but what makes these programs most effective?

A November report from the Project on Workforce and Harvard’s Business School and Kennedy School Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy examines the existing literature on career navigation and offers suggestions for practitioners on what offerings and initiatives work best.

What’s the need: Workers in the U.S. face gradually rising income inequality, one that largely represents women, Black and Latino workers. The majority of these low-wage workers have less than a college degree, but around 10 percent hold an associate degree and roughly 12 percent have a bachelor’s degree.

The report links this occupational segregation to policy and bias that favor white men, resulting in people of color and particularly women of color working in low-wage jobs. Few individuals in these kinds of jobs find financial stability later in their careers, making career education critical for today’s learners.

Challenges for students: Many young people entering the labor market for the first time do not launch successful careers, taking longer than previous generations to find a good job, according to the report. College graduates are often underemployed, with more than 40 percent of students employed in a role that does not require a degree.

Often, students from underresourced communities lack accurate information about career pathways, including skill requirements and salaries, which can create confusion about transitioning from education to employment or make them overestimate salary prospects after graduation.

Young people can also be underprepared for their first jobs, lacking work-based learning experiences (particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic) and human skills such as teamwork and problem-solving.

Basic needs insecurity can be a barrier to employment for some students as well, particularly if they lack transportation and childcare.

Drivers of success: Researchers identified five factors that affect an individual’s knowledge acquisition, career planning and integration of education and work experiences to career progression.

• Information accuracy and access. If a person has inaccurate information about job requirements or qualifications, it can lead to suboptimal career choices. Students may be unaware of labor market outcomes of their major program, leading them to believe they may earn more than is realistic, so providing external information on career incomes can make students better prepared for their career choices.
• Skills and credentials. Self-efficacy and other human skills (social aptitude, critical thinking and interpersonal skills) are closely tied to career navigation skills and can be early predictors of employment success. Those who do best in job hunting are digitally literate, have an adaptable career outlook and incorporate their personal values into career navigation. Credentials also play a significant role in an individual’s career navigation success, because employers still use a college degree as a proxy for assessing abilities and skills.
• Social capital. Job seekers are more likely to receive job offers through strong social connections, and having a higher number of employed contacts increases an individual’s rate of finding a job. Social networks, however, can be stratified in socioeconomic groups, making it difficult for lower-income earners to accomplish socioeconomic mobility through their social network.
• Wraparound resources and supports. Having access to basic resources, including time, finances, technology, transportation and caregiving support, influences how individuals start their careers. Technology, especially, is critical in the modern job hunt. Working mothers are also often impaired in their career goals because they lack caregiving and cannot juggle both family and work life. Additional supports such as formal guidance and coaching can positively influence career navigation.
• Social structures and ecosystems. Systemic inequality, including policies, economic conditions, discriminatory norms and biases, can all harm a person’s career journey. Private sector policies can also harm individuals, including automated hiring systems that exclude candidates because of mismatched resumes and vetting criteria.

Most learners or workers from underresourced backgrounds lack access to the five drivers because they are disadvantaged by social structures, norms and policies that perpetuate racism and occupational segregation, according to the report.

Solutions: Based on their findings, researchers identified 10 principles practitioners should apply to career navigation programs and systems.

1. Communicate labor market information in clear, accessible and relevant ways. Workforce websites can be difficult to navigate, and they can omit information or be unresponsive to audience needs, not meeting job hunters where they are. Instead, labor market information should be relevant, timely and presented in simple language.
2. Integrate opportunities for career exposure and social capital development. Students should have an opportunity to engage with employers and their peers, recognizing the diverse backgrounds of students and providing opportunities for them to connect with professionals who share their demographics.
3. Build foundational and navigation skills. Few career navigation services highlight the importance of noncognitive skills. Programs should highlight experiential learning or provide skills coaching so students can be best equipped for the transition into the labor market.
4. Design culturally relevant approaches. Interventions should be relevant and responsive to the backgrounds of participants from racial and ethnic minorities.
5. Use high-touch services that meet individuals where they are. Career-navigation supports function best when they allow for a high level of interaction, frequent engagement with participants and are positioned to service the job seeker in their own space.
6. Provide financial and wraparound support. Most people who need career navigation encounter barriers including finances or transportation. The City University of New York’s ASAP shows that wraparound supports can impact degree attainment and lifetime earnings.
7. Pursue community and intergenerational partnerships that build trust. In addition to being culturally competent, services should be trustworthy and work to support the whole social network, not just the individual. Engaging a student’s family can also drive change and address intergenerational challenges in career navigation.
8. Leverage artificial intelligence to personalize pathways. AI can be used to match students with jobs that fit their skills, assessing candidates’ proficiencies and matching them to job requirements. However, AI is not without its risks, often showing bias against marginalized populations, so practitioners should use artificial intelligence with care.
9. Collect disaggregated data and embed research and evaluation. Program effectiveness should be measured against students’ economic outcomes and disaggregated to understand who is benefiting from services.
10. Center equity by recruiting and elevating individuals from underresourced communities. Practitioners should recruit individuals of color and those from low-income backgrounds to use their perspectives to create better programs that fit their needs. This can also create an important change in culture, ultimately creating a more equitable ecosystem of career navigation.

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