“These are people who have been left behind by the educational and economic systems,” she said. “They’re facing multiple forms of social exclusion, including poverty, unemployment or underemployment, difficulty speaking English, and literacy and math issues.”
“With the popularity of career pathways, some organizations may offer a GED or employment skills class and say that they offer career pathways,” she said. “We are more interested in structured programs that prepare people to pursue a specific educational or employment trajectory, like getting a credential for a particular career.”
The researchers identified six “core” CP services — short-term certificate programs, industry-recognized credentials, postsecondary or stackable credentials, internships, apprenticeships and transition to postsecondary education. With the exception of classes to transition to postsecondary education, the other services were offered by less than half of all agencies.
The researchers also held focus group interviews with five to seven agencies per city to gain a more in-depth understanding of what policies influence the implementation of CP programs, how programs are designed and what challenges the agencies face.
“A big issue we’ve come across is that there are very few mechanisms for finding out what’s happening to students over time, after they leave a program,” she said. “Agencies just don’t have the capacity to track that information.”
Different requirements among the various adult education funding groups also make it difficult to track student and program success. One agency in Chicago found that many of their graduates were leaving jobs with a specific employer and, therefore, the program did not meet the funder’s goal of retaining employment. However, when the agency looked into why people were leaving, it was discovered that they were offered opportunities for better paid employment. But because they were leaving, even for a good reason, the goal was technically not being fulfilled, Prins said.
“Across all the agencies we surveyed and spoke with, there was no single student outcome measure that was used by all of them,” Prins said. “That makes it difficult for programs to really compare themselves to each other and to make a case for their effectiveness.”
With one year left on the grant, the researchers continue to collect and analyze data, including case studies of six successful programs, and are looking toward the future and continuing their partnerships with the city agencies. It is Prins’ hope that as the first study to map the landscape of adult education career pathways in these cities, the results will set a baseline for more research into education and career pathways for adult learners.
“Adult learners are a forgotten, invisible, left-behind population,” she said. “People care about K-12 and postsecondary education, but they often forget about adult education. We have this whole population of adults and out-of-school youth who need more education and support, and what is available is just inadequate.”
For more information about career pathways research at Penn State, visit adultpathways.psu.edu online.