In order to create a labor force rife with the skills needed to succeed in the modern career landscape, we need young adults who know their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the plethora of options that they have to build their careers. Unfortunately, a strikingly high percentage of graduating high schoolers report that they haven’t been given information on what career and postsecondary options were available to them. Furthermore, less than half of students report being given basic information about whether or not they were meeting graduation requirements on time.

Even when students begin searching for quality career and postsecondary opportunities, the majority of them lack the information needed to make good decisions about their career paths. How can we create a more efficient talent-to-workforce pipeline if our talent isn’t even informed about the best ways to enter the workforce in the first place?

At the root of the problem is the poor state of counseling and advising across the country, which fail to serve students with enough quality information to make important decisions early in their careers. Students want and deserve meaningful and personalized data on career paths that can allow them to make educated postsecondary choices, including clear next steps in their pathway and the ability to compare among competing options.

Ready to learn more? Read the full No Worker Left Behind report, out now.