Quality Coaching
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A successful transition from postsecondary education into employment starts long before graduation.
Education-to-career coaching that includes guidance, timely information, and support can be a game changer for students. This kind of quality coaching and guidance helps students identify their talents and interests, choose career goals, map education pathways, and navigate challenges.
By the numbers
recent bachelor’s degree graduates of public colleges and universities received all three elements of personalized education-to-career coaching: guidance, timely information, and support.
of recent graduates who received education-to-career guidance have a first job that requires a degree, compared with 52 percent who did not.
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Why quality coaching matters
Individuals face a series of high-stakes decisions as they begin to explore education and career pathways, and every choice shapes future possibilities. Coaching and career guidance that incorporates career exploration, mentorship, and support with the job search is tied to stronger earnings and employment outcomes.
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Quality Coaching
This national overview of student experiences defines quality education-to-career coaching as consisting of three elements: guidance, timely information, and support. Students’ experiences across these elements vary, and this report examines the experiences of recent graduates.
How we support quality coaching
Strada partners with states, institutions, policymakers, foundations, and other organizations to promote greater access to quality education-to-career coaching.
Principles of Quality Coaching
In partnership with Strada, an advisory group of education and workforce development leaders and practitioners developed a set of education-to-career guiding principles for quality coaching. These principles describe the core components that quality education-to-career guidance includes, and reflect the importance of making education-to-career guidance available to all learners.
Innovation in Career Services grants
In partnership with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Strada awarded eight Innovation in Career Services grants to institutions that will design, implement, and evaluate innovative approaches to career services that are aligned with the principles for education-to-career guidance.
Mentors ease paths to students' first jobs
Highly coveted internships at prominent tech companies can be hard to come by, with more than 100,000 students nationwide vying for thousands of positions. A partnership between a Seattle organization and a local community college includes education-to-employment coaching that helps students land internships and prepare for careers.
How we measure progress
Providing education-to-employment coaching and guidance helps individuals achieve their education goals while positioning themselves for career success.
Strada developed the State Opportunity Index to help states measure the percentages of recent graduates that had access to the kind of education-to-career coaching and guidance that provides timely information and support. To establish a baseline for this important data, we conducted a national survey of individuals who graduated from public two- and four-year institutions between 2020 and 2023, as well as graduates of public four-year institutions from the four largest states: California, Florida, New York, and Texas.
The 2024 State Opportunity Index found that recent graduates who experienced quality education-to-career coaching are more likely to report that their first job required a college degree, and are more likely to report that their education had a positive impact on their well-being and helped them to achieve their goals. The survey also found that experiences with quality education-to-career coaching vary significantly by major.
How a student chooses a college major is often the result of personal factors, such as interests, strengths, or education and career guidance.
Strada awards eight Innovation in Career Services grants to institutions focused on quality education-to-career guidance.
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