People-Powered Pathways: Lessons in How to Build Students' Social Capital through Career-Connected Learning

Schools are increasingly engaging in career-connected learning to increase career exposure and skill development. But focusing on skills alone will fall short, particularly if schools hope to address long-standing opportunity gaps. Awareness of possible careers and access to jobs depends not only on learning and achievement, but on personal and professional relationships that serve as gateways to career opportunities. Opportunity sits at the intersection of students' human capital--what they know and can do--and their social capital--who they know and can depend on for support and access. To launch a career, students need more than skills--they also need people willing to take a bet on their potential. With the aim of helping leaders implement effective, equitable strategies for building students' social capital, this report offers field-tested considerations for piloting social capital building within existing career pathways initiatives. The observations draw from an 18-month pilot during which the authors leveraged their social capital playbook to provide direct support to a group of three intermediary organizations--Education Strategy Group, Generation Schools Network, and Hawai'i P-20--collectively supporting 20 sites in the K-12 career pathways space. In the course of the pilot, the authors sought to understand how schools and nonprofits can make social capital building an explicit, effective, and equitable component of existing career-connected learning models.