Five Insights on Impact: What 2025 Taught Us About Advancing Career-Connected Learning
“2025 has been a pivotal year for us as we welcomed a fourth cohort of national grantees and a second cohort of regional grantees […] We have big plans for 2026 as we reflect on the first five years of Catalyze and build on that foundation through a new national challenge and an expanded regional footprint.”
Catalyze was created to jumpstart innovation in career-connected learning (CCL), grounded in the belief that philanthropy can deepen impact through intentional and iterative collaboration. Over the past five years, we’ve worked alongside grantees, employers, educators, and communities to help more than 60,000 learners ages 11–22 explore interests, build skills, and engage in meaningful career-connected experiences.
Our 2025 Impact Report shares the ambitions and outcomes of our grantees, as well as learnings from the first five years of Catalyze. While we encourage you to read the full report, here’s five things you should know:
1. Early career exploration builds more than awareness, it builds agency.
With support from Catalyze, 13,761 learners participated in career exploration opportunities, with a 94% completion rate. Learners shared that these experiences helped them clarify their interests, reaffirm their passions, and better understand their strengths. In some cases, learners also discovered that a particular pathway was not the right fit. These outcomes are not detours. Instead, they offer important evidence that learners are developing agency, self-awareness, and the confidence to make informed decisions about their futures: all core goals of effective CCL.
2. When learning is connected to real work, learners stay engaged.
Across the CCL continuum, completion rates were consistently high, especially in programs most closely tied to real-world experience. These results exceeded expectations and reinforce what practitioners have long believed: when learning is relevant, applied, and connected to actual work, learners are more likely to persist and complete programs.
3. Investing in early stage career-connected learning has multiplier effects.
Catalyze focuses on seeding new and early-stage CCL innovations. As a result, access to CCL initiatives supported by Catalyze increased by 300% over five years. During this time, 9,152 learners earned industry-recognized credentials, college credits, and/or degrees.
Beyond credentials, learners also reported increased confidence, a stronger sense of purpose, and skills to navigate an ever-evolving labor market—outcomes that extend well beyond a single program experience.
4. Sustainable partnerships are the backbone of effective career-connected learning.
A consistent theme across grantee programs is that strong CCL outcomes depend on deep, collaborative partnerships. Effective programs are built through close coordination among employers, educators (both formal and informal), and trusted community organizations.
These partnerships help ensure learning experiences are relevant, accessible, and durable. Employers strengthen their talent pipelines, educators gain new tools to support students, and learners connect their education to their communities and future careers. When investments are designed to support these partnerships, rather than the standalone programs, the impact is more likely to last beyond a single grant cycle.
Grantee group photo at SXSW EDU 2025
5. The future of career-connected learning is here.
As we reflect on five years of learning and impact, the 2025 Impact Report showcases both how far the field has come and what’s possible next. In fact, Catalyze has already launched a new national challenge for 2026 (applications are open through February 27th).
We’ve also convened our grantee community of practice, bringing together organizations from across the country to learn from one another, share challenges, and strengthen their approaches to CCL. Through continued collaboration with employers, learners, and innovators, we’re pushing ourselves (and the field) to advance what’s possible for the next generation.
For more about what we’re learning and stories from our grantees, explore the full Catalyze 2025 Impact Report and join us in building a learner-centered career-connected ecosystem that prepares young people for success.
