Why is postsecondary success becoming harder to achieve?

Something is not adding up. Employers report record difficulty finding qualified candidates. Recent graduates feel blindsided by the demands of professional life. And millions of young Americans are arriving at the threshold of adulthood — whether that means a four-year college, a trade program, the military, or direct employment — without the tools, the exposure, or the self-awareness to take that first confident step forward.

Postsecondary success has always required preparation. But the runway has shortened, the expectations have shifted, and for many students the preparation simply isn't happening. The question isn't just why graduates are struggling — it's why we keep placing the solution exclusively in the hands of higher education when the problem starts much earlier.

The numbers tell a difficult story

According to Lumina Foundation and Gallup's 2024 State of Higher Education report, 41.9 million U.S. adults have started college but stopped out before earning a credential — up from 40.4 million a year prior. Research from Bain & Company finds that fewer than half of high school alumni report earning a living wage or feeling financially stable in early adulthood, and only about 40 percent have landed a strong early job. These aren't outliers. They are the norm.

The skills gap starts before college

Most conversations about workforce readiness focus on what colleges should do differently. But the deeper failure happens before a student ever sets foot in a lecture hall. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and College Board's 2025 New Hire Readiness Report found that 84 percent of hiring managers say most high school graduates are not prepared to enter the workforce, and 80 percent believe today's graduates are less prepared than previous generations.

The skills most commonly missing are not technical. They are human. According to SHRM, nearly three in four employers struggle to find graduates with the soft skills they need — problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, and the ability to navigate complexity. Student perceptions about careers begin forming as young as age 10 and remain relatively fixed by 14; if those years are spent in academic silos disconnected from the professional world, students make one of the most consequential decisions of their lives with very little information.

The “college for all” narrative is leaving students behind

For decades, K-12 education has funneled students toward four-year institutions regardless of interest, aptitude, or financial circumstance. Students who begin but don't complete a bachelor's degree are three times more likely to default on their student loans than those who complete. The culture is shifting — 70 percent of teens say their parents now support exploring options beyond four-year college — but most K-12 systems are not set up to equitably expose students to trade pathways and apprenticeships, which remain something students stumble into rather than purposefully pursue.

The case for career readiness & development — starting in K-12

The evidence points in one direction: the solution to postsecondary success must begin long before postsecondary education does. Research from the Brookings Institution finds that students who receive targeted career education in high school are 30 percent more likely to secure full-time employment within one year of graduation, and work cited across Harvard, the Carnegie Foundation, and Stanford attributes 85 percent of job success to soft skills. Meaningful career readiness and development means starting career awareness in elementary and middle school, exposing students to the full spectrum of careers through direct experience and real professional connection, and developing the soft skills and self-knowledge employers consistently identify as the difference between a hire and a pass.

The path forward

Postsecondary success is not getting harder because students are less capable or less motivated. It is getting harder because the system designed to prepare them has not kept pace with what the workforce requires — and because the window for building career awareness, professional skills, and genuine self-knowledge has been consistently underused. Career readiness and development is not a supplemental program or a guidance-office afterthought. It is the essential architecture of a preparation system that actually prepares.