Career-connected learning is moving quickly into the mainstream.
States and districts are expanding internships, apprenticeships, work-based learning and career pathways. Employers want stronger connections to future workers, while schools are looking for ways to make learning more relevant. The question is no longer whether career-connected learning will grow, but what kind of experiences that growth will create.
Two examples, drawn from the authors’ work, show different approaches. The CAPS (Center for Advanced Professional Studies) Network connects students with professional experiences across roughly 140 high school career-connected learning programs in 32 states. Colorado Springs School of Technology (CSST), part of Education Reimagined’s Learner-Centered Ecosystem Lab, is building those connections into the design of the school itself.
CAPS reaches more than 15,000 young people. Students work with professionals, take on projects for real clients and explore fields such as engineering, healthcare, entrepreneurship and technology. In many programs, they spend five to 10 hours a week doing this work and reflecting on what they are learning about themselves.
One CAPS alum, Chloe Aspleaf, entered the program interested in science and considering laboratory research. She spent roughly half of her school day working in a cancer research lab at the University of Kansas Health System. The experience helped her realize that although she loved science, she wanted a work environment where she could interact more with other people.. She then explored healthcare through a community pharmacy, earned a pharmacy technician license while still in high school and ultimately pursued the field after graduation.
Other CAPS projects put students in the role of consultants. For several years, students worked with The Tamale Kitchen, a Kansas City nonprofit that creates paid employment for women by hiring them to make and sell tamales. Graphic design students created the wrap for its food truck. Architecture students planned where equipment would be placed inside the truck. Others researched licensing requirements and created nutrition labels. Advanced Spanish students helped employees set up donated laptops and email accounts in that language.
CAPS’ 2025 alumni study, conducted with the University of Northern Iowa’s Strategic Marketing Services, drew more than 1,200 responses. Those graduates rated their confidence after CAPS at an average of 4.84 out of 5 and reported growth in collaboration, professional communication, project management and understanding their own strengths and interests.
A different approach is taking shape at CSST, a tuition-free public school in Colorado Springs School District 11’s innovation zone. Created in partnership with the Colorado Springs Department of Economic Development and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, with seed funding from a National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines grant, the school connects classroom learning in high school with opportunities at the university, local businesses and community organizations. Its approach is designed in part to address the growing demand for talent among the region’s aerospace, cybersecurity, defense and technology employers and the motivation to ensure Colorado Springs students can access those opportunities.
CSST opened with roughly 50 students in the 2025-26 school year and has grown to nearly 80 in its second year. More than 90% of its first-year students returned, according to school leader Nathan Gorsch. In its first year, the school also received the highest state School Performance Framework score in District 11, based on academic achievement, academic growth and readiness for college and the workforce.
The school reserves Mondays for “sprints,” opportunities for students to engage with professionals outside their regular classes. Participants have worked in a university engineering lab with a retired engineer and learned computer programming from an entrepreneur at Exponential Impact, the business incubator where CSST is located. They’ve also explored art and storytelling, and tackled “smart cities” projects, examining new ways technology and data collection can help communities efficiently manage growth, energy and other resources.
Some of those relationships have led to additional opportunities. For example, one sophomore’s computer skills led to an invitation to participate in a medical-device design project with a professional team at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
As states and districts invest more in career-connected learning, internships completed, credentials earned and job placements will remain important measures. But they don’t tell the whole story. Aspleaf’s research experience helped her rule out one work environment and explore another. The Tamale Kitchen received products and services created by students for actual business needs. And CSST is testing a school structure in which professional opportunities can become part of a student’s education rather than an extracurricular addition.
Career-connected learning should also be judged by what students learn about themselves, the relationships they build and what they are able to contribute before they graduate. These examples are still works in progress, and they raise questions that will become more important as career-connected learning expands. Providing a few dozen students with sustained access to employers is different from doing so across an entire district or state. Schools need enough partners to provide substantive experiences, educators and school leaders need time to develop and maintain those relationships, and opportunities need to be accessible to students who may lack transportation or professional networks. Early results from programs like CAPS and CSST are useful, but longer-term research will be needed to understand which experiences produce lasting benefits and for whom.