Opinion: Making Training Pathways More Visible Through a Career Directory

When I was principal of Academy for Careers in Television and Film in Queens, students came with a general interest in the television and film industry. But in most cases, they were completely unaware that behind every movie or television show is an entire ecosystem of highly skilled roles: lighting and sound technicians, carpenters, camera operators, animators, editors, production assistants and more. Many of these career pathways didn’t require a four-year degree, yet they offered meaningful work and opportunities for advancement.

We worked hard to address the knowledge gap between what students and their families knew and the viable career pathways that were available to them. In many schools, however, these gaps are not addressed, a challenge that is particularly acute for students considering non-college pathways. While opportunities exist, the systems designed to help students find and access them often fall short. 

That’s why as president of New Visions for Public Schools, a nonprofit organization that has supported NYC schools for over 35 years, I’ve led an effort to create a pathways research tool to ensure that students can access opportunities by design, rather than by chance. 

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter

Today, as students increasingly seek postsecondary pathways beyond the two- and four-year degrees that educators are most familiar with, we must rethink how we support young people to navigate their choices with clarity and confidence. College remains a powerful and important route. For most students, it is the right choice, and we should continue to prepare them well for it. But a substantial share of students are also considering vocational training, industry certifications and apprenticeships, either as a path directly into a good job or as a first step on their educational and career journey.

The challenge is that reliable, comprehensive, publicly accessible information about these opportunities is extraordinarily hard to find. In many cases, if a young person plans to pursue career training, they and their counselors are left to navigate a maze of websites that present information in ways that are incomplete, confusing or inconsistent.

The New Visions Career Directory was created to make the full range of free or low-cost postsecondary career training opportunities in New York City visible, comparable and accessible to everyone. Launched in 2024 with support from The Heckscher Foundation for Children, the Career Directory is a free, open-access digital platform that compiles over 300 programs across the city: from medical assisting to carpentry, commercial driving to cosmetology, information technology to early childhood education.

What makes it transformative is not just the number of programs it includes, but the clarity it provides. Each listing is verified and standardized, with key details such as eligibility, cost and aid, program duration, credential earned and location.

To build it, our team began with a review of existing tools in the field. We then held dozens of conversations with counselors, workforce providers and community partners to understand the information students need to make decisions about which programs are the best fit for their interests, priorities, and long-term goals. 

We built relationships with providers so we could call them directly, confirm details and translate their information into a format students and counselors can use to evaluate their options. Maintaining accuracy isn’t a one-time task, but an ongoing commitment. 

We iterated on the design and conducted user research to help us understand what kind of support students and counselors need to explore career training options with the same clarity and rigor as they approach the college selection process. We’ve now trained hundreds of educators and expanded our work beyond the tool itself, developing lesson plans, one-on-one advising worksheets, quick-start videos and professional learning for counselors so the Career Directory is a platform for learning and guidance.

The response from educators has been remarkable. One counselor noted, “For students that are not interested in going to college or are unsure about college as their pathway, it gives them lots of information at their fingertips to find and explore. There is no way I could give them all these options to search.”

The directory has gained significant traction since we launched it. We’ve now reached over 38,000 users, and thanks to a new grant from the CD&R Foundation, we have committed funding for maintenance through summer 2027. This support means that tens of thousands of young people will continue to have access to clear, actionable and up-to-date information about the landscape of opportunities available to them after high school. 

As proud as I am of the project, I also know it is only one piece of what the field needs. Too often, students stumble onto job-training programs or career pathways by accident — through a chance conversation, a lucky internship or a personal connection that limits access to those who already know about them. If we want every young person to navigate their postsecondary path with intention, we need to build systems that don’t leave their futures up to chance. 

There is more work to do, and doing that work requires partnership across schools, government agencies, community-based organizations, employers, funders, and the broader public. No single institution can solve this alone. 

New Visions for Public Schools and The 74 both receive financial support from The Heckscher Foundation for Children.