Beyond Completion Challenge
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In partnership with the Taskforce on Higher Education and Opportunity, Strada in 2021 launched the $10 million Beyond Completion Challenge to support postsecondary institutions to identify and expand new solutions that will improve career and life opportunities for more students. The Beyond Completion Challenge, which officially ended in 2024, had two phases.
Phase 2 grants
Grants focused on scaling and evaluating promising initiatives over a three-year grant cycle:
ASU expanded and exported its Work+ program, which also received Strada funding in the first phase of the Beyond Completion Challenge. The program used mentorship, peer feedback, and educational programming to reshape the experience of all 12,000 working learners directly employed by the university. Work+ supplemented existing student employment and increased learners’ career readiness. Additionally, the grant supported the launch of Work+ pilot programs at eight two- and four-year institutions across the country, with the potential of reaching a total of 19,000 additional students.
Rio Salado Community College expanded its Custom Academic Readiness and Essential Employment Reskilling (CAREER) program, which helps learners seeking basic literacy, GED test preparation, workforce preparation, and career training to build their academic and employment skills. The project increased access and improved college and career navigation services for over 5,000 adult learners through the creation of a turnkey college and career navigation system, leading to more credentials, certificate and degree completion, and post-completion employment.
The University of Texas System expanded the system-wide Texas Credentials for the Future initiative, which also received Strada funding in the first phase of the Beyond Completion Challenge. This initiative infused career readiness into the undergraduate curriculum by including relevant industry microcredentials and skills badges at no additional cost to the learners. The initiative focused on low-earning majors, while expanding efforts to include other majors in which significant postgraduation earnings disparities exist, ultimately reaching 30,000 students across the system’s eight academic institutions.
The University of Utah scaled the University of Utah West Valley College2Career program to support the underserved community of West Valley, Utah, by providing college and career navigation services, career pathways, and financial aid support for in-demand health care careers. The program created clearer and more supportive pathways for students and adult learners to pursue health careers. Building on the University Neighborhood Partners’ place-based approach, the partnership between the West Valley community, University of Utah, and University of Utah Health and hospital system served at least 3,600 students from low-income communities and communities of color.
Phase 1 grants
Our initial innovation grants were awarded to 15 institutions and fall into four categories:
SNHU expanded the online delivery of competency-based and course-based education programs in the health professions. The university partnered with health care systems and clinics to provide the clinical elements of the education experience, while the online division developed and delivered the academic curriculum. Grant funds supported partnership building, impact assessment, staff capacity, and consulting services.
In partnership with Google Cloud and Mayo Clinic, NXT GEN MED is a year-round, 21/2 year undergraduate degree program that prepares diverse students for meaningful careers in the high-demand sector of health care. The university estimates the program will save students an average of $26,000 in educational costs. Grant funds supported faculty development, assessment and project management, and the work-based learning activities of internship, mentorship, and transition to employment.
Through the Texas Credentials for the Future initiative, UT System academic institutions redesigned undergraduate degree experiences to incorporate relevant, industry-recognized micro-credentials and skills badges (e.g., Google Professional Certificates) into the curriculum and co-curriculum to help produce graduates with the skills most needed by Texas employers. The initiative focused on students in majors that typically lead to lower salaries and enrolled a disproportionate number of UT undergraduate students of color. Grant funds supported eight institutions within the system as they incorporated micro-credentials into at least two degree programs at each institution and shared best practices and lessons learned.
ASU scaled Work+, a recently piloted institutional initiative reshaping the employment experiences of working learners across the university. Through intentionally designed mentorship, student reflections, peer feedback, and educational programming, Work+ supplemented existing student employment opportunities to help working learners develop their sense of identity, agency, and purpose, as well as to enhance workforce preparedness. ASU partnered with Education at Work to expand this initiative to a major off-campus employer. Grant funds supported technology and digital asset development, stipends, and administrative costs.
The College-to-Career program out of the National Institute for Student Success at Georgia State leveraged new, scalable technologies (including data scraping tools and job skills tagging) to equip students from diverse backgrounds with the technical and professional knowledge they need to successfully transition into a competitive global workforce. The program initially served students at Georgia State’s six campuses, but has the potential to serve additional partner institutions.
Designing for Equity in Career Outcomes developed proofs of concept for scalable strategies that effectively expand career support while equitably increasing the number of students who can complete an internship during their sophomore or junior year. The initiative included expanded access to online career tools, peer coaching, design project internships, and summer internship scholarships. Grant funds supported student wages, scholarships, and cost-of-living awards, and licenses for online training tools.
The University of Pittsburgh integrated data-informed career readiness strategies into existing co-curricular programs, including the University of Pittsburgh Provost Academy, Pitt Success, and Pell Match programs, to address documented racial and socioeconomic disparities in Pitt graduates’ employment outcomes. The university also built career development strategies into the curriculum and into professional development for faculty and staff.
Georgia Tech’s Office of Minority Educational Development expanded its efforts to improve the institute’s outcomes for traditionally underrepresented students. Collaborating with HBCUs and community partner schools, Georgia Tech expanded programs focused on diversity transfer pathway recruitment and retention. Additionally, Georgia Tech launched a diversity innovation program, and enhanced its career pathway program. Grant funds supported peer coaches and leaders, program housing and travel, training, resources, and study-abroad stipends.
The Creative Careers Accelerator is an innovative six-week program when teams of undergraduate students pursuing creative careers will work with industry partner organizations to solve real-world problems. The program focused on engaging students from underrepresented communities, as well as those who have demonstrated financial need, are first-generation college students, and/or those who face the largest barriers to entry and success in their chosen fields of study. Grant funds supported stipends, child care, a career readiness bootcamp, networking event, professional attire, supplies, and administrative support.
Connecting Carolina’s Covenant Scholars coordinates targeted career preparation experiences at the university, curated networks of professional advisors, successful alumni and friends, local corporate and industry partners, as well as financial and human resources to enable Carolina Covenant Scholars to successfully pursue and secure competitive careers in the post-pandemic economy. Grant funds supported a range of summer career development experiences for students engaged in the new Covenant Career Accelerator Program under the Connecting Carolina’s Covenant Scholars initiative as well as measurement and evaluation.
The University of Oregon created a new six-month, intensive, cohort-based program for students of color and low-income students. Ducks RISE empowers students for career success through research, internships, and student experiences including a hybrid career class, tailored connections to networks, workshops and professional development opportunities, coaching and mentoring, and access to internships, leadership, and research experiences. Grant funds, matched dollar for dollar by the university, were used to support programming, direct student aid, and administrative capacity.
Virginia Tech expanded the university’s Presidential Scholars scholarship and student support program to reach more students from low-income households. The university also added research, project-based work, and paid internships to the program to facilitate student success in transition to the workforce. Grant funds, matched dollar for dollar by the institution, supported an additional 72 Presidential Scholars and expanded workforce learning opportunities.
The CUNY Alumni/ae Activation Initiative leveraged the largely untapped CUNY alumni network and employer contacts to improve postgraduation outcomes for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds. The initiative supported campus alumni directors in developing and executing a strategic plan to build alumni engagement and deployment infrastructure with the power to improve student career outcomes through professional networking, career exploration, teaching, and mentoring. Grant funds supported personnel, supporting software, and events.
With Project ARROW: Adults Re-engaging and Realizing Opportunities in the Workforce, North Carolina A&T focused on the barriers to success for adult learners from minority communities through building institutional data capacity and structures. The findings from this inquiry will inform institutions on best practices for promoting degree completion and career preparedness for these learners, particularly at HBCUs. Grant funding supported staff capacity to collect qualitative and quantitative data, analyze patterns, and disseminate findings.
Career Up is a new program designed to extend and enhance NOVA’s career services capabilities, personalized to meet the unique needs of first-generation community college students. The 15-week intensive program included four components: personal attributes, career exploration, planning, and job preparation. NOVA also developed a Career Awareness Toolkit to empower faculty and staff with career-related resources. Grant funds supported student supplies, scholarships, webinars and training materials, and personnel.
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'Colleges and universities, states, and our country can do more to help prepare students for the critical transition from college to the labor market.’
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Report indicates both success and need for improvement in meeting students’ varied goals
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Microcredentials empower students at The University of Texas at Austin
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A Texas-sized push for microcredentials: The University of Texas at San Antonio
How The University of Texas at Arlington prepares students for immediate employment
A Texas-sized push for microcredentials at a state university system
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Grant competition seeks to connect learning with employment for first-generation students, those who struggle to afford education, and students of color.
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