Category: Pathways

“Are we just doing surface-level fixes for career readiness in higher education?”

Brian F. LeDuc’s insightful question in a recent piece hits home. For too long, preparing students for the workforce has meant isolated solutions: a standalone internship here, a transactional tech platform there. These approaches often miss a big problem: our systems don’t truly create shared value for students, faculty, or employers.

At Journeys Map, we get it. We see the challenge: faculty struggle to link learning to real work, employers face a “syllabus gap” with new hires—graduates may know the material but struggle to apply it on the job. And students are often unsure how their academic path leads to a meaningful career.  Strong careers grow from strong relationships, but current educational setups limit deep, scalable connections.

The Core Problem: Disconnected Systems and the “Syllabus Gap”

Today’s higher ed environment presents tough hurdles for everyone involved:

• For Employers: New graduates often struggle to show what they’ve learned or apply it effectively. There’s a gap where students lack experience with real-world ambiguity, making it hard to navigate complex professional challenges after structured school settings.
• For Faculty: There is pressure to add professional skills and real-world relevance to courses. This often means time-consuming efforts to find partners or manage projects that are tough to scale.
• For Staff: Engaging diverse students, especially first-gen learners or those working outside school, is a challenge. Traditional support systems often don’t fit their busy lives.
• For Institutions: Many campuses lack the strong, integrated infrastructure needed for comprehensive career success and building talent pipelines at scale.

Well-intentioned traditional practices often fall short. Internship courses might give academic credit but sometimes don’t provide quality, paid experiences for all. Classroom projects, while valuable, often depend on individual faculty going above and beyond to find outside partners. And many tech solutions for employer connections are just transactional, missing the chance to build strategic partnerships crucial for long-term talent flow.

Designing for the Future: Building Real Shared Value

To fix these systemic issues, we need solutions that naturally create shared value. This means approaches that:

• Deepen Relationships: Move from quick transactions to genuine, collaborative partnerships between schools, students, and employers.
• Integrate Learning & Work: Blur the lines so hands-on experience becomes a core part of learning, and academic knowledge immediately applies to practical situations.
• Ensure Scalability & Accessibility: Make career readiness resources available to all students, including those with busy schedules or diverse backgrounds.
• Simplify for Educators: Provide tools that let faculty seamlessly weave career relevance into their teaching, without adding extra work.

That’s the kind of connected approach Journeys Map is built to support.

Journeys Map: Your Bridge to Real Career Readiness

Journeys Map acts as a catalyst, directly building the bridge for true collaboration. It transforms how students, educators, and employers connect and achieve shared value. We move beyond quick fixes by giving you the tools for deep change:

1. Empowering Faculty & Counselors with Smart Insights: Our AI-powered career navigation offers interactive tools for personalized career planning. We provide real-time skill gap analysis, looking at users’ current abilities (from resumes and experience) to pinpoint growth areas for future roles. This data gives faculty precise insights to improve curriculum, foster continuous learning, and integrate forward-looking development paths.

2. Guiding Students Through the “Syllabus Gap” and Into the Real World: The “syllabus gap” refers to the disconnect between what students learn in class and the expectations they face in the workplace.  Journeys Map helps close this gap by offering students a holistic, integrated view of career realities rarely found in traditional settings. Our platform brings together scattered information, giving unmatched clarity on career path nuances. Students deeply understand:

• Diverse Commitments: The varying educational and financial investments, school pathways, and job market realities (like openings and growth) for each career.
• Authentic Context: Through “a day in the life” videos, detailed job descriptions, and clear requirements, students easily grasp the practicalities and differences between roles.
• Skills & Personal Fit: We give vital insights and the exact language for both human and technical skills needed for specific jobs. This helps students understand not just what a job involves, but who thrives in it, addressing the often-unspoken personality fit for various careers.

3. Connecting Employers to Vetted, Skilled Talent: Our platform is a powerful link for employers seeking qualified talent. Journeys Map’s employer tools let organizations find individuals with the specific experience and skills for their open positions. We streamline connections for internships and work-based learning through partnerships with colleges and non-profits, who use Journeys Map to manage cohorts and track hours. These direct connection opportunities foster lasting mentorships with industry pros dedicated to building strong talent pipelines.

Trusted by Industry Leaders: Journeys Map’s Real-World Value

This commitment to driving change is why Journeys Map is already a trusted partner. As Lisa Easterly, President and CEO of the San Diego Cyber Center of Excellence (CCOE), a leader in advancing the cyber economy (as highlighted in this NIST Industry Spotlight), says about their collaboration on the Cyber Career Map:

“Myth: I must have an advanced degree and 10 years-experience to work in the cybersecurity field. Cybersecurity career pathways have evolved and now include certifications, military to commercial tracks and boot camps… To help, CCOE partnered with the State of California, Journeys Map and cyber industry leaders to develop the Cyber Career Map, featuring customized career pathways based on the NICE framework. Similar to Google Maps, users can create personalized journeys catering to their skills and interests including education, certifications and personal work-based learning resources.“

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The Journeys Map Difference: Your Gap, Our Bridge

Journeys Map provides comprehensive information that truly empowers users. You can:

• Gain self-awareness with in-depth interest and skills surveys.
• Articulate your valuable skills using precise language.
• Better understand potential careers through rich, data-driven insights.
• Clearly identify your “gap”—the difference between your current skills and what you need for your desired path—giving you a clear roadmap for development.

This complete approach turns career uncertainty into clear pathways. It brings clarity and fulfilling opportunities for students, streamlined tools and data for educators, and robust, skilled talent for employers.

Partnering for Real Impact

The call for change is clear: we must move past surface-level fixes. Higher education leaders now have a real chance to embrace solutions that build shared value and fully prepare every student for a dynamic workforce. Journeys Map is ready to partner with you to build these connections and cultivate the next generation of talent.

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Ready for a refreshing solution where students, schools/faculty, employers, and learning & work truly connect? Discover how Journeys Map can support your programs. Contact Erin Tanner at: ETanner@edgate.com

California is actively building clearer, more connected pathways from education to employment for students statewide. A key effort, the Master Plan for Career Education, aims to bridge classroom learning and in-demand careers through a skills-focused approach. Journeys Map’s tools support these efforts by  helping students explore options, understand skill needs, and make informed choices. Like any large-scale initiative, putting such a plan into practice involves complex coordination, especially in a state as diverse as California.

The Master Plan’s Vision: Unifying Education and Opportunity

The Master Plan highlights a critical shift in approach. Instead of focusing solely on traditional four-year degrees, it embraces diverse pathways. It positions career education as something all students should have access to from pre-kindergarten through higher education and beyond. Key parts of this plan include:

• Skills-First Approach: Valuing competencies and experiences as the core currency of today’s workforce.
• Early Exposure & Smooth Transitions: Introducing career concepts early and creating seamless moves between K-12, community colleges, universities, and jobs.
• Industry-Aligned Pathways: Ensuring educational programs directly meet the evolving needs of California’s high-growth industries.
• Equity and Access: Designing systems to serve all students, especially those from underserved communities, ensuring fair access to quality career pathways.
• Leveraging Technology: Using innovative platforms to personalize learning, connect students with opportunities, and track progress.

This plan establishes a dynamic system that prepares students for their first job and empowers them for a lifetime of evolving careers.

Journeys Map: Digital Capabilities for Your Career Journey

The Master Plan lays out a clear vision for connecting education to empowering careers for Californians. But how does that vision become your reality? Journeys Map provides the digital capabilities to bridge that gap. Our platform empowers individuals like you with a comprehensive, integrated, and equitable solution for career navigation and workforce development:

1. Powering the Skills-First Economy: Our platform creates detailed skills-based records, a powerful evolution from traditional resumes. Journeys Map uses AI to track skills shown in past jobs and those users self-select based on learning and experience. This lets schools and employers directly validate competencies, streamlining talent finding to match industry needs.

2. Guiding Diverse Career Pathways: Journeys Map offers detailed pathways that include traditional degrees, certifications, apprenticeships, military-to-civilian transitions, and vocational training. Our AI-powered career navigation provides interactive tools for personalized career planning, guiding individuals through many options based on their unique skills, interests, and goals. This directly aligns with the focus on diverse, accessible pathways for all Californians.

3. Enabling Early Exposure and Seamless Transitions: Our intuitive interface makes career exploration accessible to everyone, from high schoolers looking ahead to adults changing careers. Recent data from American Student Assistance (ASA) shows a big shift in post-high school plans: only 45% of teens now consider a 2- or 4-year college their most likely next step, down sharply from 73% in 2018. At the same time, interest in alternative pathways like apprenticeships, vocational schools, and certification programs surged from 12% to 38%. This growing trend highlights the critical need for flexible, complete career guidance. By clearly mapping various routes to jobs, Journeys Map directly supports these evolving student choices, making transitions smoother at every stage.

4. Fostering Equity and Access: Journeys Map embeds equity right into its core. We offer a mobile-optimized platform in both English and Spanish, ensuring wide access. Our AI works for different learning styles (auditory, visual, read/write), bringing career guidance to all learners. We are committed to reaching underserved communities and providing high-quality tools for career clarity and advancement.

5. Bridging the Gap for Employers and Educators: Beyond individual users, Journeys Map includes dedicated “Counselor” and “Employer” views. These features enable seamless, real-time communication and collaboration across schools, workforce development groups, and businesses. Employers provide specific talent needs based on precise skills. This empowers educators to proactively tailor programs for industry demand, ultimately building highly efficient talent pipelines that benefit the whole state.

Your Career in California’s Future, Supported by Journeys Map

The Master Plan for Career Education shows a deep commitment to California’s prosperous, equitable future. Journeys Map actively provides the essential technology and infrastructure to connect every Californian directly to meaningful education, valuable skills, and rewarding career opportunities. By empowering individuals and significantly streamlining collaboration across sectors, Journeys Map equips you with the clarity and connections needed for a fulfilling career, greater success, and lasting achievement in California’s evolving workforce.

Ready to accelerate your county’s career education goals and build a future-ready workforce?

Schedule a Personalized Demo of Journeys Map Today.

This week (March 3-5, 2024) was the Educating for Careers Conference, curated by the California ACTE (Association for Career and Technical Education) and California Partnership Academies. Nationally, the need for the creation of educational resources, guidance, and pathways to high quality careers has been gaining more attention, but only because the cost of college has become so egregious and out of reach for so many, that policy makers are finally taking notice. Of course the COVID pandemic threw gas on the proverbial fire, as more and more graduating high school students began to choose alternate pathways to employment. 

The Higher Education Act:

In his book Apprentice Nation, author Ryan Craig discusses how we were once a nation of apprenticeships (think George Washington and Paul Revere) which slowly began to introduce higher education as a way for the merchant elite to distinguish themselves. The tide fully turned in the 1960’s with the Higher Education Act which put into law provisions for financial assistance to students and to strengthen the educational resource of the colleges and universities of the United States. Craig states “The ethos of college — equipping young people to fulfill their potential in whatever direction it may take them — is the ethos of America.” He goes on to say how the tide is turning again, and the country has fallen far behind other industrialized nations in the development of robust apprenticeship programs. Far too many students are being left behind, and too many well paying, high quality jobs are going unfilled. Craig offers solutions for addressing these problems, which includes the development of robust pathways programming and a national apprenticeship system. 

One of the keystones of Craig’s augment is the lack of Federal Funding and leadership, with the little money that is trickling into the existing programs often being spent in the wrong places. Having been in the pathfinding space for the past 12+ years, I wholeheartedly agree with Craig’s assessment. 

Building Pathway Programs:

What was clear from the Educating for Careers Conference was that there are legions of dedicated individuals and small teams out there doing yeoman’s work building pathway programs, helping our children find their way, and doggedly staying as current as humanly possible on all the new career clusters, jobs, technologies and industries that are cropping up like daisies after a springtime shower. If you’re a guidance counselor today — you have to familiarize yourself with careers in AI, Cybersecurity, Green Energy, Transportation, and a plethora of new Healthcare jobs — just to name a few. There are so many great new high paying jobs available that don’t require a college degree, that these overworked souls are finding it difficult to keep pace with change. To top it off, they are not given the tools and support to enable enough advancement to keep pace with the rate of change.

Advancement with Little Funding:

Unlike the many higher education and EdTech conferences I’ve attended with fancy graphics & logos, clear leadership organizations, and the extra ‘bells and whistles’ that add to their cache, this conference was bare bones in comparison — a meat and potatoes event as they say. There were hundreds of great speakers and sessions, a solid hall of vendors ready to service the market, but little else. I don’t say this to disparage the organizers, but rather make an example of the fact that there is so little funding and leadership from a national level, that any advancement of the work being done in this space is possible through the sheer will of those involved, and little else. 

I was blown away by the dedication and passion of the attendees — all searching for better ways to guide their charges in the exploration of careers of meaning. They are truly heroes without capes, mild-mannered citizens dedicating their lives in the service of others. 

Just like President Johnson’s Higher Education Act did in 1965, it’s time that our current administration establishes programmatic leadership and funding for the development of a robust pathways program, including apprenticeships. The United States has fallen behind countries like Germany, Great Britain and Australia who have funded, developed and maintained pathways to solid middle class jobs, far outpacing the United States. While access to college remains important for many students, pathways to non-college careers today require skill-based training and systematic change — not college debt. I say let’s support our friends in guidance and pathway management programs, and those students looking for career options that may not require a 4-year degree. There is plenty of financial incentive to do so, as the painful college debt epidemic and >700,000 open cybersecurity positions will attest. 

Final Thoughts:

A big thank you to the wonderful people I met at the 2024 Educating for Careers Conference who dedicate their time, talents and treasures to our nation’s youth. It is my mission to support your work through the development of world-class pathway tools, and advocacy to our elected officials who have the power to affect change on a national scale, which is sorely needed today more than ever.