Many people view work-based learning as an unscalable endeavor in part because employers don’t see apprenticeship and other education-to-career pathways as a workforce strategy, rather, they see it merely as philanthropy or community engagement, which will always limit the scale of their willingness to engage.

This narrative is further complicated with the more recent pushback against DEI initiatives—pushback that is only growing under the new administration—and families and educators may believe work-based learning is a diversion from college, a last-resort option for those students struggling academically, rather than a viable and dignified path to the middle class.

Intermediaries find themselves walking a fine line—work-based learning programs ARE a path to equity, but they’re also a path to ROI for employers. In order to scale, neither can be sacrificed, so the right narratives are important. We need to balance the incentives in our work and in our stories; Intermediaries are in the unique position to support both equity and scale, helping the parties in the pathways ecosystem that must collaborate for success, but do not always have the same incentives.​