Less than 5 percent of GED holders ever earn a postsecondary degree. In response, innovative GED programs have begun creating clear, effective pathways to postsecondary education, preparing their students for college and careers.

This white paper by John Garvey and JFF’s Terry Grobe shares lessons from “best in class” GED to College programs that show early, positive results in preparing youth for college and helping them persist once there. It also explores key issues connected to the growth of this programming within the field and lays out a framework for leaders and program staff looking to transform short-term GED programs into more intensive, college-connected designs.

This toolkit is a step-by-step guide to designing and implementing employee learning and career advancement projects for frontline workers.

The toolkit is designed for job-site practitioners of workforce development: human resources managers, staff developers, and others responsible for employee learning through union-based programs, community colleges, technical schools, and community-based organizations.

The toolkit incorporates material developed and used by employers and their educational partners. These include slide presentations, curricula, templates, and forms that support work-based learning. The toolkit also includes excerpts from practice briefs and case studies developed for Jobs to Careers, with links to the full documents.

Colleges participating in the Breaking Through initiative have found that incompatible data and data systems represent a significant barrier to creating pathways into college for adult students. This report provides insight into solutions that would be useful to any college seeking to serve low-skilled adults.