In 2023, Rodel president and CEO Paul Herdman embarked on a partnership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to learn about where we are as a nation on career pathways and to see firsthand what’s working in several other countries. (Click here for a synopsis of the project.)

This project, supported by the Carnegie Corporation, builds on the first-of-its-kind longitudinal analyses by the OECD that shows “career pathways,” broadly defined, can routinely be associated with better employment outcomes for youth. This project marks the first time that a comparative international study has been undertaken.

Over the course of the three months, Herdman worked with the teams at Rodel, the OECD, and Robert Schwartz of Harvard, to better understand what’s happening in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland, and the U.S. These countries are not only doing some leading-edge work, but their governance models are similar to the decentralized context that American policymakers find themselves in, so the lessons learned can help inform efforts here at home.