News & Insights

State leaders feel the urgent need for solutions that ensure strong connections between education after high school and economic opportunity for every student, especially those who face the greatest barriers. Join Strada and a community of national and state leaders actively building solutions that close the gaps between classrooms and careers for a webinar at 2 p.m. Eastern time, Wednesday, June 24.

In this webinar, an expert panel will unpack Strada Institute for the Future of Work’s latest employer survey report, "Entry-Level Hiring in the AI Era: What Employers Are Thinking (and Doing)."

The students’ college education was supported by the Strada HBCU Initiative, which focuses on leadership development and elevating the transformative influence of historically Black colleges and universities. Forty-seven HBCUs partner with Strada as part of the initiative.

Work-based learning is linked to better early career outcomes, including higher earnings and greater likelihood of securing college-level employment. As part of the 2025 State Opportunity Index, states were benchmarked using student-reported participation in at least one of five types of paid work-based learning at public two- and four-year institutions: internships, apprenticeships, co-ops, practica, and undergraduate research experiences.

To understand better how entry-level hiring is evolving in the early AI era Strada Institute for the Future of Work surveyed nearly 1,500 executives and senior talent leaders across the country.

As Strada’s eight-year investment in historically Black colleges and universities reaches its halfway point, the partner institutions and students involved reflect on how it helps students connect their education to economic opportunity.

In partnership with Strada, an action group of enrollment management leaders, financial aid administrators, admissions professionals, and student advocates from across higher education came together in 2025 to develop the Student-Centered Enrollment Management Principles.

Throughout 2025, enrollment management leaders, financial aid administrators, admissions professionals, and student advocates from across higher education came together to develop shared Principles to rethink institutional enrollment management practices grounded in price transparency.

This report shows that a large part of the uneasiness students and families feel stems from an inability to determine whether postsecondary education is actually affordable. And while providing more clarity and greater transparency will help address some of the confusion, rebuilding trust may also require significant structural reforms around price modeling, financial aid packaging, and communications.

In partnership with Strada, an action group of intermediary organization leaders, researchers, and policy experts came together in 2025 to define and guide the practice of employer intermediaries in order to grow work-based learning opportunities.

This report provides actionable guidance for talent acquisition, learning and development, human resources, and workforce strategy leaders. It is designed for employers who already see internships as valuable, but who are seeking clearer frameworks, stronger alignment to business priorities, and more consistent ways to articulate and measure program value.

The newly launched Model Workforce Pell Data Framework offers a practical roadmap for a robust data infrastructure aligned across education and workforce systems.