As communities prepare learners for the workforce, everything hinges on one question: Are they creating clear, connected pathways from learning to meaningful employment?
Too often, education and workforce systems operate in silos, leaving learners to connect schools, training providers, employers, and support organizations on their own. A stronger model unites these partners around shared goals, trusted data, and learner-centered pathways to employment, advancement, and economic mobility.
That idea drove the creation of ACT's Pathways to Success toolkit, supported by a pilot program involving ACT Work Ready Communities with Metropolitan Community College, College of Southern Nevada, ECMC Foundation, and community partners. The two-year initiative shows how communities can remove barriers, align systems, and build pathways that lead to valuable credentials and living-wage careers.
Workforce readiness starts with alignment
A work-ready community does more than offer programs; it connects them. Employers need a talent pipeline with relevant skills. Educators in K-12 classrooms and two- and four-year universities need to understand what skills employers are looking for to prepare students for their next steps. Learners — especially those who have faced barriers to education and employment — need practical, accessible ways to enter the workforce and advance.
Connection is built through alignment in a few key areas, including:
- Understanding the skills jobs require from the beginning, whether those come from what can be learned via on-the-job training vs. an educational program.
- Knowing what supports will help learners succeed.
- Having confidence in the credentials that signal readiness.
Having common ground in these areas turns disconnected courses and credentials into a pathway with a visible destination.
Credentials matter — but connection creates opportunity
Aligning the skills pipeline is essential to building a Workforce Ready Community, but employers ultimately need proof of competency. Communities must connect each stage of a learner’s education and career journey — from K–12 learning and skills-based credentials to success and advancement in the workforce.
The ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate is a nationally recognized, portable credential that validates foundational workplace skills. More and more employers are partnering with educators and recognizing the NCRC as a practical and stackable credential demonstrating the work and life skills they’re looking for in an employee.
But a credential alone does not create a career pathway.
At the College of Southern Nevada, this project strengthened employer conversations, clarified learner on-ramps, and paired entry credentials with visible next steps. The message evolved from “Earn this credential” to “This credential can lead to this job, and here is where you can go next.”
CSN also stands as an example where the NCRC not only helps students on the direct-to-workforce path, but also on the degree-seeking higher education path. The American Council on Education now recommends up to nine semester hours of college credit for Silver, Gold, or Platinum WorkKeys NCRC earners, saving students both time and money as they pursue their degrees.
For high school and adult learners alike, the value becomes clear when education, credentials, employment, and advancement are visibly connected.
Data makes the pathway visible
Data should do more than satisfy reporting requirements; it should reveal the learner journey. Communities need to know who is accessing programs, whether learners are progressing, what credentials they earn, where they go next, and which supports help them persist.
When educators and workforce partners align what data they track, a more cohesive learner picture is revealed. Bringing together data points around student enrollment, skill gains, assessment results, credential attainment, continued education, employment, wage gains, and advancement shows whether a pathway is working — and for whom.
This is where the human side of the data comes into play. The clearest evidence of a pathway’s value is often a learner’s progress. Nestor, an engineer who immigrated to the United States from Cuba, needed to rebuild his career in a new workforce system. Through a Manufacturing Technician integrated education and training program at the College of Southern Nevada, he combined prior experience with U.S.-recognized training, workforce-readiness skills, an ACT WorkKeys NCRC, OSHA certification, and manufacturing credentials. He ultimately became a part-time assistant instructor at the college.
Connected pathways deliver results
The Pathways to Success pilot demonstrated that alignment in real time. The College of Southern Nevada and Metropolitan Community College met or exceeded every targeted success measure:
- 6,060 learners from underserved and other high-priority populations enrolled.
- 95% persisted in the program.
- 87% of intermediate- and advanced-level participants earned at least one short-term, stackable credential.
- 98% of credential earners continued their education at the participating sites.
These results reinforce a central workforce development principle: A short-term credential should be a starting point, not the destination. When it connects to additional education and career opportunities, learners have a reason — and a route — to keep moving forward.
What connected pathways require
For K–12 leaders, career readiness begins well before students enter the labor market. Strong pathways connect career and technical education, work-based learning, dual enrollment, industry credentials (like WorkKeys), advising, employers, community colleges, training providers, and workforce organizations.
The goal is not one outcome for every student. It’s helping each student understand how today’s learning connects to tomorrow’s opportunities: the career they want to explore, the skills it requires, how to demonstrate those skills, and what education, experience, or credential comes next.
For workforce developers, the opportunity is to serve as the connector across systems. Employers should help define relevant skills, distinguish formal training needs from on-the-job learning, and identify credentials with local labor-market value. Workforce organizations can translate those needs into accessible on-ramps, such as short-term programs, integrated education and training, dual credit, stackable credentials, and career coaching.
Five objectives for a work-ready community
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Start with the job. Work backward from employer needs to the skills, training, credentials, and experiences learners need.
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Make the pathway visible. Show how education and training connect to credentials, employment, and advancement.
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Build in supports. Treat advising, coaching, tutoring, transportation, childcare referrals, and related services as core pathway components.
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Use data to improve. Track access, persistence, skill gains, credentials, employment, continued education, wage gains, and advancement.
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Create shared ownership. Align education, workforce, employers, and community partners around common goals and measures of success.
From programs to pathways
The future of workforce development depends not on creating more programs, but on connecting them more effectively. Educators help learners see where education can lead. Workforce developers build accessible on-ramps to employment and advancement. Employers define readiness and invest in talent. Communities use data to learn whether the system works for the people it is intended to serve.
The ultimate measure is whether a learner can enter the system, understand where they are going, receive the support they need, demonstrate their skills, find meaningful employment, and continue moving forward. That learner-centered, data-informed alignment is what strengthens a work-ready community.
