Learning Unbound: Redefining Education Paths

Redefining Learning Pathways

For decades, obtaining a four-year university degree has been upheld as the primary pathway to career success and economic prosperity. The reasoning has been that a traditional college education provides valuable knowledge, transferable skills, and recognized validated credentials and is often considered a signal of one’s abilities.

However, this narrative has been increasingly challenged in recent years. The rise of higher education costs, greater visibility of successful individuals who have not completed degrees, advances in diverse education models like apprenticeships, and the growth of entrepreneurship have shown that earning a degree is not the only pathway.

Despite these trends, there is still a persistent emphasis on funneling students toward traditional degree programs. According to Success, Redefined, a report on a 2023 research study conducted by American Student Assistance and Jobs for the Future (JFF), 42% of Generation Z youth feel that their families expect them to pursue a college degree. Parents and counselors often have limited knowledge about education-to-career paths, leading them to predominantly encourage students to pursue traditional college routes. In fact, 9 in 10 parents still want their children to go to college after high school, even as Americans’ faith in college is declining, according to a 2023 poll conducted by Intelligent.com and featured in The New York Times. This sentiment underscores the pervasive belief in the value of a conventional college education, despite the growing availability of other career pathways.

On the one hand, the belief is justified: Bachelor’s degrees carry greater economic benefit, on average, than other credentialing paths. On the other hand, the benefits typically accrue only to those who finish a degree program—but too many who start do not finish, oftentimes with debt that is hard to pay back. Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center tells us that the overall completion rate (earning a credential or transferring to a four-year institution) for students who started at a public community college in the fall of 2017 was only 43% after six years. The rate for students seeking an associate’s degree was even lower, at just under 36%. High dropout rates, coupled with employee talent shortages and Gen Z demands for change, highlight the need for the acceptance of diverse pathways.

Instead of funneling everyone toward the same one-size-fits-all route, which clearly fails too many, we must destigmatize and expand diverse routes to education and training. This multiple-pathway approach recognizes that there are many avenues that lead to growth and the acquisition of skills and competencies.

Learning is not a linear journey

More such avenues are needed to change the typical mindset that learning is linear—and that most of it precedes landing on a career track. The view that learning must happen in a sequential order ignores the reality that learning is a lifelong, complex, and multifaceted endeavor. In fact, fostering continuous learning, upskilling, and reskilling will need to become the norm in an increasingly dynamic economy where workers change jobs more frequently and need to continually adapt to new technologies.

Many of the multiple pathways we find promising, such as those uncovered by a JFF landscape scan and described in the report A Universe of Possibilities, recognize and are designed for this dynamism and for nonlinear, more agile modes of learning. They are often tailored to a learner’s individual goals, learning styles, and life circumstances. They demonstrate that postsecondary credentials and degrees are often integrated into the learning journey at various stages, depending on a learner’s priorities, financial considerations, and career aspirations. They recognize that some individuals may choose to pursue other educational paths, such as vocational training, an apprenticeship, or self-directed learning, before or even instead of a traditional college degree. Others may opt to take breaks from formal education to gain practical experience through internships, entrepreneurial ventures, or personal projects.

Even routes seen as nondegree pathways are often designed to integrate with or lead to a college degree rather than to serve as a separate track. They are opening new opportunities for learners—including those who move away from the traditional linear progression of high school, then college—through unique and hybridized approaches that hold the potential to redefine the educational landscape.

The impact of multiple pathways and nonsequential learning

Cultivating a healthy ecosystem of high-quality, responsive credential pathways can expand opportunities when they demonstrate quality, value, and accountability to learners, parents, and employers. Skills-based hiring practices among employers and the use of learning and employment records/wallets are examples of emerging infrastructure elements that will have to be built out to support the kind of continuous learning needed by today’s students and workers.

Moreover, if such approaches and infrastructures reach critical mass, they might hasten the evolution of our traditionally linear learning-to-working system to one with features better suited to the needs of the economy and the continuous learning needs of young people and adults. Increased support for nonlinear learning could deliver a variety of benefits:

• Increased accessibility and equity in education: If more people recognized that learning could happen through a variety of routes, such as on-the-job training, experiential learning, or modular coursework, education and career opportunities would become more accessible to individuals from various socioeconomic backgrounds, age groups, and life circumstances. This could help address issues of inequity and promote greater social mobility.
• More personalized and flexible learning journeys: Embracing nonsequential learning would enable individuals to customize their learning experiences based on their unique interests, strengths, and career goals. This could lead to more engaged and motivated learners, as they would have the flexibility to pursue knowledge and skills in a manner that aligns with their preferences and needs.
• Improved alignment between education and workforce needs: By decoupling learning from the traditional degree sequence, educational programs and curricula could become more agile and responsive to the evolving needs of industries and employers. This would facilitate a better match between the skills acquired by learners and the competencies demanded by the job market, reducing skills gaps.
• A stronger culture of continuous learning: If learning were viewed as a lifelong process that can occur through various pathways, it could promote a mindset of continuous learning and upskilling among individuals and within organizations. This could lead to a more adaptable and future-ready workforce that is better equipped to handle the rapid pace of technological and economic change.
• Increased employer recognition of diverse credentials: As nonsequential learning pathways become more prevalent, employers may be more inclined to recognize and value a broader range of credentials, certifications, and competencies acquired through various means. This could open new talent pools and increase workforce diversity.
• The integration of formal and informal learning experiences: Embracing nonsequential learning could encourage the integration of formal education with informal learning experiences, such as on-the-job training, apprenticeships, or self-directed learning. This blending of different learning modalities could lead to more well-rounded and practical skill development.
• Support for innovation in education delivery: The recognition of diverse learning pathways could spur innovation in the education sector, with institutions exploring new delivery models, such as competency-based education, modular coursework, or hybrid learning environments that combine online and in-person components.