Washington D.C. November 29, 2023 – The National Fund for Workforce Solutions today announced the publication of Unlocking Economic Prosperity: Career Navigation in a Time of Rapid Change, a white paper highlighting new core design principles and recommendations aimed at shifting the paradigm of workforce development to center more equitable opportunities for all. The paper, a collaboration between the National Fund and Harvard University’s Project on Workforce, dissects the field of career navigation to identify the drivers and barriers that disproportionately prevent Black, Latino, and Indigenous individuals from economic mobility.
The teams worked together to identify five core drivers of career navigation success: (1) information accuracy and access, (2) skills and credentials, (3) social capital, (4) wraparound resources and supports, and (5) social structures and ecosystems. However, many learners and workers from under-resourced communities do not have access to these resources, which often relegates them to lower-wage, poor-quality jobs.
“This project confirmed what many in the workforce and education fields already know: an individual’s career journey is shaped significantly by social structures and networks,” said National Fund Chief Program Officer, Michelle Rafferty. “Our country needs a new ecosystem approach to career navigation that aligns opportunities across education, workforce programs, and workplaces to intentionally disrupt inequity. Workers need a seat at the table if we are to truly imagine and design a new approach.”
The National Fund led the applied research that informed the white paper, including conducting a scan of 2022 data from its regional workforce collaborative network, follow-up interviews with network directors, and focus groups with practitioners and workers. These efforts helped to fill in gaps of knowledge that existed due to a lack of empirical research on the nuanced impacts of systemic racism on an individual’s career journey, or which interventions and resources are most likely to promote more equitable outcomes for students and workers of color.
“Career navigation is a personal process, but it is shaped by embedded social norms and structures that have long disadvantaged Black, Latinx, and Indigenous individuals and those from low-income households,” said Kerry McKittrick, co-director of the Harvard Project on Workforce. “We were thrilled to collaborate with the National Fund for Workforce Solutions team to dissect the career navigation ecosystem and identify those barriers to upward mobility and opportunities for change.”
This first-of-its-kind research project is made possible through generous support from Walmart.
“Walmart is proud to have supported this important study,” said Julie Gehrki, Walmart Vice President of Philanthropy. “We’re a people-led business that’s helped our associates unlock new opportunities for more than 60 years, with over 75% of our field management starting as hourly associates. Through our philanthropic investments, we want to make this kind of mobility the norm, and the insights from this research will help everyone build greater economic mobility for all.”
This work alongside the Project on Workforce is part of a broader, multifaceted research project the National Fund is currently conducting on career navigation. The comprehensive research will be used to produce journey maps that illustrate people’s lived experiences navigating the workforce, expand the indicators used in the National Fund’s Workforce Equity Dashboard, and produce a compelling video series amplifying the voices of frontline workers. Ultimately, the aim is to chart a new path in which we rethink assumptions about the workforce development field, shift narratives about career navigation, and fully recognize the necessity of making systemic change to address occupational segregation, while simultaneously addressing job quality.
“Improving career navigation for workers and learners presents a compelling opportunity to tangibly address one of many structural barriers that perpetuate occupational segregation,” said Michelle Wilson Ed. D., National Fund director of Evaluation and Learning. “This endeavor is a pivotal commitment for us at the National Fund, actively contributing to realizing our vision for an equitable future.”
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About National Fund for Workforce Solutions
The National Fund for Workforce Solutions envisions an equitable future where all workers have the resources required to thrive, race does not dictate employment outcomes, and all jobs are good jobs. We are a recognized leader in establishing and scaling effective strategies that foster racial equity in the workforce to help communities thrive. Our dynamic national network is comprised of more than 30 regional workforce collaboratives that convene cross-sector stakeholders and align resources toward collective action for greater impact. Our four solutions — activating employers to make jobs better, equipping workers for success, changing systems for improved outcomes, and co-investing for impact — are how we work to achieve our goals. Learn more at www.NationalFund.org.
About the Project on Workforce
The Project on Workforce is an interdisciplinary, collaborative project between the Harvard Kennedy School’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, the Harvard Business School Managing the Future of Work Project, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The Project produces and catalyzes basic and applied research at the intersection of education and labor markets for leaders in business, education, and policy. The Project’s research aims to help shape a postsecondary system of the future that creates more and better pathways to economic mobility and forges smoother transitions between education and careers. To learn more, visit https://www.pw.hks.harvard.edu/.
