Research shows that students do not receive sufficient information about what careers are available and which courses best lead to those options, so they waste time in courses that do not lead to good jobs. What’s more, it is not clear how effective public workforce programs are at raising wages and increasing access to better jobs. Center for American Progress explores these issues in this brief. 
 

Improving long-term outcomes requires a new approach that links all these systems with a unified vision where school and training systems lead to employment in good jobs.
This issue brief recommends that federal laws take a unified approach to build pathways to better jobs.

Specifically, Congress should:

• Align the reauthorization schedule with federal education and workforce development laws without creating legislative gridlock.

• Create a common set of rules and practices around defining quality.

• Create parameters for job quality that are included in federal education and workforce development laws.

• Align key legislative elements of federal education and workforce development laws with good jobs.

• Require states to implement federal education and workforce development laws collaboratively across the education and workforce training systems.