Building Career Pathways with Purpose

Six months ago, Launchpad officially took off with our inaugural cohort of 11th-grade students beginning the Foundations stage. The last six months have confirmed what we already knew to be true — young people deserve access to career pathways that will help them thrive AND they are holding us accountable to be intentional and strategic about building social capital within these pathways. 

More than 100 high school juniors across 11 different high schools in Philadelphia jumped at the opportunity to inquire further about Launchpad. For our first cohort, we were looking to enroll 45 students. The demand, even without evidence of success, demonstrates how students are hungry for these kinds of programs. As one Launchpad student told us, “This program supported me by taking me to see these professional tech work places to see what’s happening behind the scenes, which gave me motivation and ideas about what I want to do.”

Many students shared not only the ambiguity they felt around if college was the right next step for them but also their concerns around paying for college, their readiness for it, and the need to work to support themselves and their families.  

When we think about the correlation between degree attainment and income level in a city like Philadelphia, it’s clear that creating accelerated pathways connecting high school students to high-paying jobs needs to be a city-wide priority. In “The State of the City, 2023”, a report made possible by The Pew Charitable Trust, we learned that less than half of all seniors went on to attend college the following fall.  At neighborhood high schools, this number drops down to a third. Young people deserve to be presented with viable options and ones that provide meaningful opportunities for connection and engagement while building confidence and competence in the skills necessary to excel in their careers.

Before we launched programming, one of the most frequently asked questions we encountered was about running a city-wide program that would meet weekly after school because of concerns around safety in Philadelphia. Some family members and school staff were concerned about students traveling to a centralized location to attend Launchpad programming and needing to travel back to their home communities during the winter when it gets dark early.

What we discovered, instead, is that young people are craving opportunities to be around like-minded people where they can challenge themselves.  Our average attendance was 83% over the course of spring programming, and we have retained 83% of students that began with us since January. In a recent survey, one student shared, “I am very grateful to the program for giving me the tools to enrich my knowledge, grow as a person, create connections with incredible people and give me their support to be better every day.”

Having 2.5 years with our young people gives us the opportunity to be strategic and intentional about building relationships and community.  One family member writes,  “The Launchpad program has really made a huge difference for Jaylen, getting him out of his shell. I was a bit nervous at first, thinking about him being a program with a bunch of kids that he didn’t know. However, after seeing the work that [Nick] and Dannyelle have put in to make sure students feel safe and supported, I feel like it was the right choice for him. I have seen the impact that the program has had on his confidence and am excited to see how he grows.”

Since Launchpad’s inception, we have worked to create a permeable model that is dismantling unhelpful boundaries between high school, postsecondary education, and careers, especially in a post-virtual learning educational landscape. In Job for the Future’s (JFF) research on The Big Blur, they call for the restructuring of grades 11–14 in order to “ensure that all young people will be able to access the knowledge, skills, credentials, and social capital they need to launch careers and realize their best possible futures.”  

Going into Foundations Spring Semester programming, we felt confident in our ability to design a model that would allow 11th-grade students an opportunity to grow their knowledge and skills and earn credentials in the technology sector. But, we were initially worried about being overly ambitious in our planning efforts around social capital – it is hard to ask industry professionals to volunteer their company’s time on an evening or a Saturday. Remaining committed to the importance of creating opportunities for high school students to build social capital alongside their technical skill development, we were able to implement a curriculum model where industry exposure represented 25% of Launchpad’s Foundations Spring Semester Programming by rethinking our program schedule and doubling down on opportunities where schools are closed or closing early for district-specific reasons. 

The Big Blur also makes a strong case about the importance of creating a new kind of system that can work for everyone. One critical lesson learned over the last year of planning and programming is that to really realize our vision of creating an economy that works for everyone, we have to get really messy. It is in this messiness where we are able to be innovative, blowing up the box we limit ourselves to, and be responsive to the rapidly changing needs of our stakeholders. One example of this is Launchpad’s response to Act 158 which requires schools to provide students with the option to demonstrate postsecondary preparedness through non-standardized testing methods. This includes additional pathways that more fully demonstrate college, career, and community readiness. Act 158 took effect in 2022, and thus begins to impact students graduating in 2023. If the requirement had been in place in 2018 and 2019, just 35% of Philadelphia’s public school students would have been able to graduate based on their test scores alone, according to a recent report from the Philadelphia Education Research Consortium (PERC).  “For future cohorts of district students, we estimate that over half will need significant support to meet Keystone pathway requirements or will need to successfully pursue alternative graduation pathways in order to graduate,” according to the report. In response to this statewide change, Launchpad worked to ensure that students who are successful in Foundations and 101, the first two phases of our program, will be able to meet the graduation requirements outlined in Pathway Five which requires the demonstration of evidence consistent with the student’s goals and career plans.  

Helping to meet this need for our school partners is first and foremost about meeting the needs of our young people. Students not only want to explore their career interests while in high school but also are desperately seeking opportunities that allow them to launch their pathway toward their career while still in high school. As one Launchpad student shared, “We have a computer lab at my high school but I do not really see anyone learning tech or coding in school.  I know other schools do tech but I did not see that at my school.  Programs like Launchpad give me an opportunity to learn a lot.  There are people who go to college and study stuff that they end up not being interested in and get a job that they do not like.  I love that I can learn about technology and what it will be like to work in tech while still in high school.  I heard about a lot of programs in high school but I never really saw a program that was a tech program that would help me learn and get the jobs.” 

Below are some memorable highlights from Spring programming.

Students completed a two month studio project where they researched tech career pathways on their own, culminating in a pitch presentation to a group of middle schoolers from the Heights program. The most popular career pathways that students researched? Game Design and Graphic Design!

Throughout Launchpad Foundations we brought in a variety of guest speakers to talk to our students about tech career pathways and expanding access and equity in the space. Over the Spring, our students heard guest lectures from Chris Brown, Andy Stutzman, and Rob Thomas.

Across the Spring students participated in two site visits at tech company headquarters. On May 6, students visited the SEER Interactive headquarters for Coded By Kids’ Ctrl + Shift competition. On May 16, Launchpad explored the Comcast Technology Center in Center City. Students took a tour of the building and heard a panel of BENgineers talk about their tech journey.

Wanting to celebrate our students’ dedication to the program, Launchpad invited all students who were on track with their deliverables to visit Six Flags. Students spent the day riding roller coasters and building friendships with their cohort-mates.

After completing a summer enrichment experience with Launchpad, students will move into the 101 stage of the program. In 101, students will: 

• Complete over 200 hours of Python instruction including CS 201 and CS 202 using the TechSmart curriculum.
• Earn their PCEP—Certified Entry Level Python Programmer—a professional credential that measures the candidate’s ability to accomplish coding tasks related to the essentials of programming in the Python language.  
• Complete two authentic impact studio projects—one focused on technological solutions to community issues and the other focused on identity development and creating inclusive workplaces.
• Engage directly with industry professionals with more than 50 hours of programming on and off-site.  

We are excited to be able to offer 101 programming in Launchpad’s very own space located at 801 Market Street. Not only do our students deserve to learn in environments that mimic the workplace, but they deserve to do so in state-of-the-art spaces that promote collaboration and innovation. As we look ahead to the future, we remain excited about the talent that is overflowing within our first cohort. Not only are our students the solution to employer hiring challenges but they are the change-makers of tomorrow. Skills-first hiring is a no-brainer when you meet and interact with future technologists like Launchpad students. Together, they will create an economy that works for everyone.