For many Americans, the path from education to work is not a straightforward one. In an economy being rapidly reshaped by AI, and some surveys showing confidence in higher education well below where it was a decade ago, a growing number of young people face important questions about what comes after high school. Every student deserves to leave school with more than a diploma. They should leave with a plan, a sense of purpose, and confidence that they have multiple pathways to a successful future.
Should they pursue a four-year college degree? Start at their local community college? Enter the workforce right away? Follow another education or training pathway, such as a registered apprenticeship?
These are not easy questions. And the answers look different depending on a student's interests, talents, and career goals. Yet many young people don't even know where to begin. One recent survey found that a majority of Gen Z students feel unprepared for life after graduation.
Helping every young person prepare for life after high school is a shared civic project. It requires educators, employers, higher education institutions, community organizations, and state leaders working toward the same goal.
It's time to create clearer pathways from education to employment—pathways that help every student discover their strengths, pursue their goals, and prepare them to confidently step into the opportunities available in today's economy. The good news is that states on both sides of the aisle, including our own, are already showing what those new pathways can look like and what it takes to build them. What we've learned may help other states that share our goal of helping more young people figure out not just where they want to go next, but also how to get there and where to find support along the way.
In both our states, we began by creating spaces where the people working on this issue can talk to each other. It may sound obvious, but too often the people working toward the same goal aren't working together effectively.
In Delaware, we started with a simple question: How do we make it easier for every student to see a future for themselves after high school? For more than a decade, workforce boards, higher education institutions, employers, and K–12 educators have worked together to build career pathways that now serve more than 75 percent of Delaware high school students, giving more young people opportunities to connect their strengths and interests to education, training, and careers. Governor Meyer built on that foundation through one of his first executive orders, creating a new Office of Workforce Development to strengthen connections across K–12 education, higher education, and the workforce. This new structure gives Delaware an opportunity to deepen that collaboration, break down remaining silos, and make those pathways even stronger for students.
A similarly significant—and uniquely far‑reaching—transformation has taken place in Ohio. In 2025, under the leadership of Governor Mike DeWine, Ohio created a new cabinet‑level Department of Education and Workforce, unifying K–12 education, career‑technical education, and statewide workforce policy under one agency for the first time. This governance shift has allowed Ohio to institutionalize deep collaboration between employers and educators. Manufacturing, for example, is one of Ohio’s anchor economic sectors, so state leaders partnered with the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association to better align education and workforce policy with industry needs. Through this effort, Ohio significantly expanded career-technical programs and updated its engineering and manufacturing standards to reflect the skills and abilities employers require—ensuring students have access to high-quality pathways.
In both of our states, we found that bringing the right people to the table creates stronger connections between what students learn, the choices they make, and the opportunities available after graduation.
Those conversations, of course, are just the first step. What comes next is translating those ideas and policies into practice, which both our states did by building organizations to keep the conversations between education and workforce leaders going. We often call those groups intermediaries: organizations that can work across systems and bridge gaps between K–12 education, higher education, and the workforce.
In Delaware, Rodel serves as an important intermediary, helping bring together state agencies, schools, postsecondary providers, employers, and community partners. Rodel is one part of a broader statewide ecosystem working together to strengthen opportunities for students. That collective work has produced real results: from 2021 to 2023, Delaware increased high school student postsecondary credit success from 15 percent to 56 percent—the fastest growth in dual enrollment in the nation—while also increasing industry-recognized credential attainment from 11 percent to 19 percent and work-based learning participation from 10 percent to 15 percent.
Ohio has taken a more regional approach with its Career Pathway Support Networks, which operate in each of the state’s seven economic development regions. Far more than advisory groups, these networks serve as true intermediaries—bringing together school districts, career-technical education providers, colleges, employers, and community organizations to solve problems rather than work in isolation. By tailoring pathway design, advising, mentoring, and work-based learning to regional labor market needs, these networks ensure students gain access to the high-opportunity jobs growing in their communities. This structure gives Ohio the capacity to implement workforce readiness initiatives statewide with fidelity.
As system leaders, we also have a responsibility to remove barriers so schools, educators, and communities can innovate on behalf of students. Too often, great ideas already exist—what people need is the flexibility, partnership, and support to bring them to life.
In Delaware, that meant recognizing that career exploration shouldn't start in high school. Students begin imagining their futures long before then, and our education system should help them explore those possibilities earlier. Today, more than 10,000 middle school students are already exploring careers and beginning to connect what they're learning in school to the opportunities ahead. We're also expanding apprenticeship pathways in education and healthcare so more young people can prepare for high-demand careers earlier and gain valuable experience while they learn.
Ohio has paired governance reform with major investment and policy improvements. When demand for career‑technical education surged, thousands of students were on waitlists—especially in districts without access to full career-technical education programs. In response, Ohio prioritized expanding access through a $300 million investment in career-technical education infrastructure, creating opportunities for more than 10,000 new students each year. Building on this work, Ohio partnered with its business community to overhaul its entire K–12 industry-recognized credential system, adopting a rigorous new value framework grounded in employer demand and student outcomes data.
Like Delaware, Ohio also recognized the need for students to start exploring career options earlier and enacted a requirement that every school district provide career-technical education in grades seven and eight. This ensures every student has access to meaningful career exploration opportunities.
These changes didn't happen overnight. But any state can start making them now, and they don't have to do it alone. States like ours, along with national organizations such as Jobs for the Future, which has supported both our states, are providing examples of what it looks like to spark ideas and new collaborations that strengthen the connection between learning and work.
Every state already has talented educators, committed employers, community partners, and leaders who care deeply about young people. The opportunity now is to bring them together around a shared purpose. When we connect learning to opportunity, we help every student see a future full of possibility while strengthening our communities and economies.
Editor’s note: This was first published by RealClearEducation.
