The Workforce Development Cloud: Improving Student Outcomes and Social Mobility

The first ecosystem that brings together key stakeholders to encourage career exploration, provide data on regional and state-specific industry demands, and connect cross-agency data to unite talent and workforce pipeline. 

What is the purpose of school? Of the many possible answers to this question, one emerges above the rest: to instill an excitement for lifelong learning that incentivizes students to pursue a career of engaging, meaningful work that aligns with their strengths and interests.  

However, research shows that only 26% of high school seniors have foundational work readiness skills, and only 33% of students believe they will graduate college with the skills and knowledge to be successful in a job. This disconnect between education and the workforce is a disservice to students, employers, and the talent pipeline.

PowerSchool’s Workforce Development Cloud serves to bridge that disconnect. It is P20W’s (preschool to grade 20 to workforce) first complete solution for college, career, and life readiness. The Workforce Development Cloud connects key stakeholders from schools, districts, and states to better prepare the emerging and existing workforce to begin and build careers, navigate career transitions, and acquire in-demand skills.  

What is the Workforce Development Cloud?  

PowerSchool’s Workforce Development Cloud unites three solutions that are specifically designed to support students and members of the workforce in planning a career path, seeking employment, and gaining professional skills.  

• PowerSchool Naviance is our best-in-class college, career, and life readiness (CCLR) platform. It personalizes future planning with self-discovery assessments such as Gallup’s Clifton StrengthsExplorer®, Career Interest Profiler, Career Key, and AchieveWorks to help students identify their strengths and interests and align those skills with potential career paths. Students can also research and apply to college with the Common App integration, connect with college and military representatives, and map out multi-year course plans to ensure they’re meeting graduation and career path requirements.  
• Headed2 for States gives students, educators, jobseekers, and other stakeholders information on wages, job openings, and other state-specific content. Regionalized data is aligned with Perkins V and is presented in an engaging and intuitive interface. 
• Connected Intelligence P20W is the first fully managed data as a service (DaaS) platform to maximize educational attainment and career success. It unifies and integrates data between K-12 schools and government agencies, such as the Department of Labor or the juvenile justice system, to help address long-standing challenges. It also helps organizations make efficient and effective use of analytics, empowering improved student outcomes and creating pathways to social mobility. The platform helps school counselors, CTE staff, workforce program managers, state-level agencies and boards, and everyone in between receive the insights they need to better support a wide variety of college, career, military, and life readiness initiatives.  

How does the Workforce Development Cloud support career readiness?  

Career readiness involves acquiring the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes to make informed career choices. It includes a combination of technical skills, “soft” skills, career exploration, career planning, and professionalism. The Workforce Development Cloud supports career readiness in three key areas.  

Provides all students with impactful tools to prepare for future careers 

• Helps students develop a personalized plan that aligns with their strengths, interests, and future goals  
• Engages students in career exploration with interactive tools that are appropriate for learners as young as elementary school  
• Connects students with opportunities to participate in work-based learning, such as internships, job shadows, and career fairs

Supports equitable access to career information throughout your state 

• Promotes state-specific content on in-demand industries, occupations, and certifications  
• Provides students and job seekers with interactive tools to guide career exploration and planning  
• Provides regional and state-specific data to inform students’ and job seekers’ action plans toward their career goals 

Connects cross-agency data to inform key policy and investment decisions 

• Unifies and integrates data from any data source in near real-time  
• Increases data access and enhances research and data projects by connecting previously siloed data from schools and districts to the workforce 
• Provides state leaders with impactful reporting to inform decision making and show ROI of workforce development initiatives  
• Increases efficiency and ROI through reduced data redundancies and eliminates unnecessary costs such as on-site data storage and expensive hardware

Youth-to-Career Connectedness 

In our current system, all the student development data and information gathered regularly and systematically stays siloed. This limits its usefulness to schools and to the regional economy.  

The Workforce Development Cloud centralizes data to promote transparency with measurable metrics. It also improves accountability for all stakeholders, including students and job seekers, schools and districts, state agencies, the local community, and the local economy. Connected data from early childhood to adulthood helps states make more informed policy decisions and better direct resources.  

A Holistic Picture 

The Workforce Development Cloud is the first system of its kind to provide a holistic picture of the emerging workforce to inform state policy, direct financial and resource investments, and maximize educational attainment and workforce participation.  

Workforce needs are continually evolving and changing. Workers, governments, and employers must be agile in response to in-demand skills and talent shortages. The Workforce Development Cloud helps make lifelong learning and meaningful careers possible for all.