Person:

Seibel, Sherry

Pathways to economic opportunity are broken in the United States, disproportionately affecting Black, Latinx, and Indigenous individuals and those from low-income backgrounds. Disrupting long-standing occupational segregation and improving outcomes for all will require a system of career navigation that gives all individuals economic agency and opportunity.

Unlocking Economic Prosperity: Career Navigation in a Time of Rapid Change dissects the evidence and practice of career navigation and sets an agenda for a more equitable career navigation ecosystem. Based on an extensive literature review and consultation with experts and frontline workers, we identify the drivers of career navigation success and lay out core design principles and recommendations for the future.

At a time of rapid technological transformation, policymakers, employers, educators, intermediaries, and philanthropies must collaborate to build a system of supports and pathways that provide all individuals with the information, skills, social capital, resources, and social structures they need to advance.

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for policy recommendations, partitioning government funds to grant awardees, and overseeing the wellbeing of our nation’s workers. It utilizes government research databases such as the Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research and Health and Human Services’ Pathways to Work Clearinghouse to aid in these processes. However, these research resources are scattered and related findings not well chronicled. Locating relevant data is time consuming and cumbersome.

To mitigate this issue, the Project on Workforce Summer Fellows designed a prototype for an internal, centralized dashboard containing key insights from studies in five government research databases and one non-profit database. Furthermore, we aggregated findings on high priority initiatives including reentry, career pathways, sector strategies, and dislocated workers.

The intended primary users are the Department of Labor’s Employee and Training Administration and outside consultants. The tool enhances the evidence finding process and help advance pertinent initiatives. This report outlines the dashboard design process, tool highlights, and describes intervention insights gleaned from initial use of the prototype.