The career pathways approach to workforce development emerged to help workers with lower levels of formal education advance to better paying jobs by earning in-demand postsecondary credentials. The approach involves articulated steps of education, training, and jobs within an industry sector or occupational cluster, combined with other services and employer connections to support participant success. To advance the evidence base in the career pathways field, the Descriptive & Analytical Career Pathways Project (D&A CP Project) includes three sub-studies, each addressing different evidence gaps through distinct data sources and methods.

The Career Trajectories and Occupational Transitions (CTOT) Study provides new information on workers’ economic advancement prospects and pathways. Specifically, it examines the actual career trajectories that entrants to an occupation experience over 10 years and the specific occupational transitions that workers make as they move from one occupation to another. The analysis of trajectories helps to identify which occupations appear to be a more reliable launchpad(s) for career advancement. The study’s analysis of transitions helps to uncover common pathways to show how workers typically advance.

Focusing on mid-level occupations commonly targeted by employment and training programs, the study used panel surveys that follow individuals for decades to examine wage growth 10 years after workers entered these occupations. Additionally, in order to understand occupational transitions, the study leveraged several data sources, including information from government surveys and private labor market information providers.

Key findings include:
• There is meaningful variation in wage growth trajectories among workers starting in mid-level occupations. Assuming a starting wage of $20, entrants to launchpad occupations earn about $7.20 more per hour after 10 years compared to those who enter lower-wage-growth occupations.
• Several characteristics distinguish launchpad occupations, including promising clusters for high-wage growth occupations and an emphasis on transferable skills, such as problem solving and two-way communication.
• Several career experiences are associated with wage growth, including the frequency of job changes and whether an individual remains in or leaves the occupational cluster.
• Wage growth varies for workers with different backgrounds or experiences, including by gender, race, ethnicity, education level, and parental educational attainment.

In addition to the final report, deliverables for the D&A CP Project CTOT study include appendices detailing career trajectories and occupational transitions for healthcare, early care and education, information technology, and production/manufacturing; public use data; and a dashboard. The CTOT data also supported a paper on wage growth disparities by gender and race/ethnicity.

Additionally, the D&A CP Project produced a career pathways timeline as well as an early brief describing highlights from a scan of the research and an accompanying research and evaluation matrix.

The other two sub-studies in the D&A CP Project include a Meta-Analysis Study and Machine Learning Study.