Person:

Fuller, Joseph

In a labor market driven by rapid technological change, workers and learners face significant challenges in securing quality employment. This struggle is particularly pronounced for the nation’s 42 million low-wage earners, who have less access to accurate career information and fewer resources to devote to career exploration and upskilling. Those workers often become trapped in a cycle of low-wage employment with minimal prospects for advancement. There is an urgent need for a system of career navigation that will disrupt this cycle and help all workers advance.

As people experience more career transitions and longer work lives, career navigation becomes even more important. However, there is a dearth of research as to how individuals–particularly low-wage workers–navigate their careers. Data on how people acquire and use career information, leverage social capital, and deploy navigation skills remains limited.

To bridge this knowledge gap, we are conducting a multi-year, mixed-methods study of career navigation among low-wage workers. The initial phase of the research involved a nationally representative survey of this population, which yielded preliminary insights into how low-wage earners actually perceive and approach career navigation, discussed in this paper. The data also raise several new questions, which we intend to explore through qualitative research. We hope this study catalyzes employers, educators, and policymakers to adopt more effective and equitable career navigation policies and practices.

Across the country, community colleges serve as critical engines of workforce development—partnering with regional employers, creating career pathways, and expanding opportunities for historically marginalized students. But as the labor market evolves and emerging technologies like generative AI reshape industries, how can these institutions ensure their students are prepared to thrive in the workforce?

This volume explores how four diverse community colleges—Hudson County Community College (NJ), Community College of Aurora (CO), South Texas College (TX), and Riverland Community College (MN)—are using labor market information and student outcomes data, industry partnerships, and cutting-edge technology to help students access high-growth careers.

Researchers Simba Gandari, Courtnei Sanders, Arnold Lopez and Ram Hernandez collaborated with the community colleges to conduct rigorous qualitative research over a period of five months. Nearly 150 individuals across the four regions—including college leaders, faculty, staff, students, employers, policymakers, and other experts—participated in interviews or focus groups to inform this work. The result is four detailed case studies, each of which highlights promising data and technology practices and other successful initiatives at the institution.