Career Navigation: Understanding the Journeys of Learners and Workers

Read our latest Career Navigation report, Pivots Without Pathways: Career Navigation in a Fragmented Labor Market.

Background

In 2023, the Project on Workforce conducted a literature and landscape review of career navigation research and practice to identify strengths and gaps in the field. The paper identified five “drivers” of career navigation success-- information, skills, social capital, support, and societal structures-- and highlighted gaps in how individuals access and use these resources.

Project Overview

Building on this framework, our most recent research conducted a mixed-methods, two-year study to examine how low-wage workers and community college students acquire and use career information, respond to disruption, build skills, and pursue career advancement. An earlier paper, Navigating Opportunity: Career Information and Mobility in Low-Wage Employment, shared initial findings from a nationally representative survey of career information and low-wage workers.

Project Team

• Primary Investigator: Joseph Fuller

• Director: Kerry McKittrick

• Project Manager: Amanda Holloway

• Research Team: Rony Ramirez, Candace Megerssa, Allie Dennis, and Ali Epstein