Learning in Community: Round Four Cohort Gathers to Advance CCL
In early June, Catalyze Round Four grantees gathered in New Orleans to kick off their journey with the Catalyze Community of Practice.
The cohort, consisting of the American Student Opportunity Collaborative (ASOC), CareerWise, Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation, and Propel America, explored shared learning goals and areas of opportunity to collaborate across their Catalyze-funded initiatives—finding alignment around the common priorities of employer engagement, sustainability and program growth, and expanding career-connected learning (CCL) to younger learners.
Through Catalyze’s $3.5 investment, the Round Four cohort will expand career-connected learning opportunities and drive meaningful outcomes for more than 60,000 learners ages 11-22. The two-year grants focus on career exploration for young adolescents and activating industry partnerships.
Meet the Round Four Catalyze grantees!
Read on to learn how these organizations are leveraging their proven impact to scale innovative CCL models fueled by learning, cross-sector collaboration, and a commitment to meaningful learner outcomes.
Partnership Development & Employer Engagement
At Catalyze, we’ve long recognized that employer engagement is a cornerstone of effective career-connected learning. So it comes as no surprise that our Round Four grantees also have identified it as a top learning priority. The cohort has already begun to share actionable strategies currently in use to attract, develop, and retain industry partners in co-creating and implementing meaningful CCL programming.
As the cohort looks to scale their programming, they are focused on deepening employer partnerships—shifting from low-touch interactions to stronger commitments like hiring and retaining young talent through apprenticeships. Recognizing a common gap in the field, the cohort also sees an opportunity to collaborate on ways to effectively demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) for CCL across industries and remove common barriers to employer engagement.
Driving innovation in employer partnerships is Round Four grantee Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation, who is expanding its ElevateEdAZ program of structured career exploration and work-based learning via meaningful employer partnerships and co-designed CTE programs. The Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation maintains over 170 key partnerships, with 60% of employer partners providing “high touch” engagements like internships.
“The Catalyze funding will support us as we expand to 27 high schools in the upcoming year and serve over 50,000 students across the state of Arizona.”
Also at the forefront of partnership development and employer engagement is Round Four grantee CareerWise, who is implementing two new employer-driven youth apprenticeship models in Colorado and New York. Through their sector strategy, CareerWise aims to increase industry partnerships by activating industry associations and business intermediary organizations to support career-connected learning programs for young adults.
“We are focused on having youth apprenticeships in 50 states by 2030. We cannot do that by ourselves as an organization.”
Sustainability and Program Growth
Expanding access to career-connected learning is a shared priority for the Round Four cohort, and grantees are focused on scaling and sustaining their successful programs to reach more learners, without sacrificing quality. This includes refining program design, strengthening infrastructure, and identifying the conditions that allow innovation to thrive over time.
Building on their successes and as they expand their programming, grantees are eager to explore best practices and share learnings on sustainable revenue models in the CCL ecosystem. At the same time, they are also motivated to source and share field-building tools and resources that enable intermediaries and industry associations to support and lead efforts beyond a single grant period.
Making meaningful strides in program growth is Round Four grantee Propel America—first joining the Catalyze Community in 2021 as a Round One grantee and now expanding its regional reach while maintaining high-quality, learner-centered programming. Round Four funding will be used to activate industry partnerships to launch and scale new earn-and-learn healthcare pathways in Philadelphia and Los Angeles alongside three new employer partners.
“Catalyze has already helped Propel America level up. Since our Round One award we have moved from pilot to launch, we have sharpened our programmatic design, we have improved how we measure outcomes, and we have built a clearer path to both scale and sustainability.”
Serving Middle School Learners
Round Four grantees recognize that early exposure to career-connected learning builds confidence and sparks curiosity in young learners. They’re exploring ways to expand opportunities to younger students, knowing it’s essential to engage them during the formative years when career interests take root—laying the groundwork for informed decisions in high school and beyond.
Building on the success of their work with learners ages 11 to 22, the cohort is curious about how CCL programs can align and sequence across the full age range of learners—from middle school to high school to young adults. They are particularly interested in exploring how existing CCL programs for adults and young adults could be adapted for middle school learners, as well as how middle school-focused CCL approaches could, in turn, influence high school and young adult programming.
Pioneering efforts in middle school engagement is Round Four Grantee American Student Opportunity Collaborative (ASOC), Just is filling CCL gaps for rural middle schoolers across Arizona, Colorado, and Ohio. In as early as 6th grade, learners will experience career exploration via online courses taught by highly qualified teachers—engaging in real-world problem-solving, connecting with local community strengths, and accessing opportunities often unavailable in rural middle schools.
“If we wait until junior year in high school to teach kids to explore career options it’s too late. It’s too late to figure out what courses they ought to have taken in high school, what extracurriculars they should’ve done, what summer jobs they should’ve gone after—but it’s also often too late for kids to understand that idea that you can do whatever you want to do, you can be whoever you want to be.”
Peer Learning & Practice Sharing
Joining the nation’s largest community of practice dedicated to career-connected learning, it is evident that Round Four grantees are committed to shared learning—exchanging best practices, celebrating wins, addressing challenges, and field-testing strategies with one another. This spirit of Catalyze collaboration is grounded in a shared purpose: expanding access to high-quality career-connected learning and driving meaningful impact for the learners.
Follow Catalyze on LinkedIn and stay tuned as we spotlight each Round Four grantee as they advance in these areas of learning throughout their grant period.
