A report released this summer by FutureEd examines the disconnect between new career pathways being offered in U.S. high schools and the lack of guidance provided to students to take advantage of these opportunities.
Drawing on research, surveys and interviews with experts across education and workforce development, Future Shock: The Crisis in Career Navigation explores why so many young people feel unprepared to make decisions about college and careers, the consequences of that reality and the innovative programs and technologies that are emerging to help young people chart stronger paths from school to careers.
A July 2025 survey of a sample of Gen Z youth found that nearly half aspire to work as “professional content creators” while only a third said they wanted a “traditional job.” But the reality of this vision is hash: of the more than 127 million people who say they work as “creators,” 70 percent report earning less than $49,000 a year, and more than half earn less than $15,000, according to the report. Other popular career aspirations were becoming professional athletes, lawyers, actors, singers, hairdressers, fashion designers and pilots.
In contrast, the report cites the fastest growing U.S. jobs are wind turbine service technicians, solar panel installers, nurse practitioners and actuaries. The healthcare and social assistance fields are projected to employ the largest number of people over the next decade.
“These enormous disconnects between aspirations and opportunities point to a crisis in the quality of career navigation available to American students. Too many young people are unaware of the variety of careers they could pursue, the availability of jobs in their area, and the skills they need to pursue opportunities or interests. Opinion polls show that many students don’t feel their high schools are preparing them for careers,” states the report.
Consequences of this lack of guidance and a clear plan after high school often result in students dropping out of college or not attending at all.
The counseling crisis
Research over the last decade presented in the report shows that students who develop career-navigation skills are more likely to “have expanded education and career opportunities, make education and career decisions that better fit them, and experience more positive outcomes in both school and work settings.”
However, the U.S. faces a school counselor shortage. In 2025, according to the American School Counselors Association (ASCA), the average student-to-counselor ratio nationwide was 372:1, compared to 512:1 in 1995. While that is a great improvement, ASCA recommends a ratio of one counselor to every 250 students.
The report cites the tension between school counseling services focusing on college preparation over career navigation amid limited resources. According to one practitioner, school leaders need to adjust and listen to what their students want.
“For many years, we’ve had a ‘college for all’ mantra, and we’ve been trying to push as many young people as we can through two- and four-year institutions,” said Judy Goldstein, senior vice president and managing director of the Career Navigation Impact Hub at Britebound found. “That’s still very important, but young people today are telling us they don’t want that. They don’t want the student debt, and they don’t want to spend four years in college.”
In response, new career pathways have been created, primarily at high schools, but “the profusion of new pathways has led to a confusing and chaotic marketplace of programs and credentials,” according to the report. The nonprofit credential registry Credential Engine cites more than 1.8 million credentials available from more than 134,000 providers in the U.S. today. The sheer number of programs can be hard to narrow down to what is truly good quality due to the lack of reliable data on pathways.
The final obstacle to widespread career navigation services is the lack of infrastructure to help students find and understand what courses, credentials and experience is needed for possible careers.
California spotlight
“While many schools have tended to treat career navigation as an add-on activity, a few pioneering school districts have chosen to embrace career navigation as a core element of their curriculum,” the report states.
One such district is Cajon Valley Union School District, located in San Diego County. The district, which serves about 18,000 students of whom nearly 85 percent are economically disadvantaged, has instituted the “World of Work” curriculum, which focuses on early and continuous career exploration.
The report quotes Cajon Valley Superintendent David Miyashiro on how children form their career identities. “Career identity starts around 5 or 6 years old,” he said. “If kids don’t start to see themselves in a professional space, or if they aren’t exposed to others who look like them or sound like them [in particular careers], they probably won’t aspire to that later on.”
Career education begins in the district in kindergarten and continues throughout students’ time there. At the district’s newest high school, universal work experience is a priority, with students spending 40 percent of their time in work-based learning out in the community.
A site visit to the district is a pre-conference offering at CSBA’s 2026 Annual Education Conference and Trade Show (find more information here).
Recommendations
The report ends with three key recommendations for educators and policymakers:
- Use technology to complement, not replace, human connections: While new technologies offer the promise of assessing student skills and interests and matching them with labor markets, it is important that this technology is used as a supplement to in-person counseling for career navigation.
- Expand access to work-based experiences: Researchers argue that real-life experience is a powerful and necessary complement to one-on-one guidance.
- Prioritize data: Counselors and students must have access to meaningful information on local and regional labor markets, skills requirements for specific pathways, credentials of value and trusted providers. Schools should also track their own outcomes data to understand what strategies work.
Other sections of the report cover partnering with organizations to close counseling gaps and community colleges’ role to play in career navigation.
