$650,000 Heinz Endowments Grant To Support CAEL’s Career Pathways Work in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH – The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping adult learners navigate the pathways between education and employment, has received a two-year grant of $650,000 from The Heinz Endowments to strengthen and scale education and career pathways in the Pittsburgh area. CAEL recently relocated its headquarters to Pittsburgh to facilitate even closer work with the strong regional networks of education, workforce development, and philanthropic partners.

CAEL’s focus will be to connect learners and workers in Pittsburgh to rewarding high-wage jobs, increasing economic mobility, and meeting critical workforce and talent development needs. The work will leverage important insight gained through similar initiatives CAEL has led throughout the country and help bring these best practices to the region.

“CAEL has partnered with hundreds of communities to cultivate navigable and rewarding education-employment pathways, and we are grateful to The Heinz Endowments for helping us expand that national expertise to Pittsburgh and positioning the region as a model for scalable workforce innovation,” said Earl Buford, CAEL president. “Collaboration is what turns strong individual initiatives into a connected talent ecosystem that produces sustained economic mobility.”

An important part of the work in the Pittsburgh region will be developing and distributing pathway maps that offer accessible entry points to rewarding careers for 18- to 24-year-olds that are supported by continuous and coordinated collaboration among employers, high schools, postsecondary education providers, counselors, and workforce boards. By the end of 2027, this collaboration aims to connect more than 500 young adults to career opportunities in high-growth sectors.

Uncertainty about the interplay of competencies, credentials, and occupations creates obstacles to quality careers, especially among underrepresented learners and workers, even in sectors with pressing talent needs. CAEL pathway maps benefit workers and learners as well as recruiters, counselors, and advisors, featuring entry-level, mid-level, and senior-level occupations that lattice across industries. By highlighting competencies that qualify workers for progressively rewarding occupations, the pathways maps provide valuable insight to employers and workforce developers seeking greater efficiency in recruiting, upskilling, and retaining workers.

Another key outcome of this process will be the development of region-specific strategies that are grounded in national best practices. Drawing from its work and research throughout the country, CAEL will create a Pittsburgh-specific career pathways playbook, a resource that will be shared with CAEL's membership and other philanthropic entities and organizations in the education-employment ecosystem. This effort is designed to establish a durable, and scalable, framework that can position the region for sustained progress and ongoing collaboration over time.

This project will build on and leverage other CAEL initiatives in Pittsburgh, including the pilot of MyCareerForward, a regional approach to aligning workforce and talent development, employers, community-based organizations, and education and training providers to help underserved workers and learners access rewarding career pathways. It incorporates career navigation support, credit for prior learning, and diverse but integrated upskilling and reskilling opportunities with learning and employment records.

About CAEL
Recognizing that adult learners are the backbone of the U.S. economy, CAEL, a national nonprofit membership organization established in 1974, helps forge a clear, viable connection between education and career success, providing solutions that promote sustainable and equitable economic growth. CAEL opens doors to opportunity in collaboration with workforce and economic developers; postsecondary educators and trainers; employers and industry groups; and foundations and other mission-aligned organizations, engaging with these stakeholders to foster a culture of innovative, lifelong learning that helps individuals, and their communities, thrive. Learn more at cael.org. 

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