Insights from the 2025 Impact Report.

We recently surveyed more than 1,400 learners across Catalyze-funded programs to better understand how CCL is impacting their lives. Their voices and insights are both inspiring and affirming–powerful reminders of why this work matters and how it’s making a difference. 

At SXSW EDU 2025, the Catalyze community hosted a standing-room-only workshop—underscoring the growing demand for expanding access to CCL for all learners. Through interactive exercises, participants explored practical, learner-centered strategies that support middle and high school students to build agency to chart their own career paths.

Earlier this year, Catalyze conducted a comprehensive analysis of its Round One and Round Two grantee portfolio and 850 Round Three applications. Our goal was to surface trends and insights about what is working in career-connected learning and where additional opportunities exist to accelerate innovation and learning.

Understanding and addressing the complexities of career-connected learning is essential to creating accessible and innovative career pathways for learners.  As one of the nation's largest communities of practice focused on career-connected learning, Catalyze is at the forefront of transforming how learners aged 11-22 engage with education and career opportunities.

Two Catalyze grantees are at the forefront of developing robust pipelines to support a steady flow of qualified and passionate educators and reshape the story about what it means to work in education.

A recent report explores the challenges and opportunities for career-connected learning practitioners to support students as they navigate the post-high school transition.

With increased federal and state-level funding to expand programs, career-connected learning has seen a growing sense of momentum. As a result, a deeper understanding of its benefits and applications has emerged, providing greater clarity on the topic overall.

Catalyze’s 2023 Impact Report uncovered crucial insights into what works in the current career-connected learning landscape