UNITE-LA is launching Certificates to Careers, a new, two-year demonstration focused on understanding how education and training translate into career advancement in Los Angeles County’s health care sector. In partnership with CredLens and a demonstration community college, the project will connect education and workforce data to examine how learners move into and across health care occupations, how their earnings and career opportunities change over time and where barriers to advancement emerge. By looking beyond enrollment and credential completion, the project will help identify where education-to-career pathways are working, where they are falling short and how they can be strengthened to support greater career mobility.

Certificates to Careers will focus particularly on Black, Latino, first-generation and low-income learners and learners from historically marginalized communities who continue to face inequitable access to higher-wage career opportunities. In the first year, UNITE-LA will build the data foundation and examine where inequities and opportunities for improvement exist. These findings will inform a second year focused on testing and refining promising strategies related to advising, pathway design, credential stackability and connections to employment.

Through the demonstration, UNITE-LA aims to generate practical insights that can inform a broader approach to strengthening equitable health care career pathways across Los Angeles County. The work will help partners better understand not only whether learners complete education and training, but whether those experiences lead to meaningful career advancement and economic mobility. Selection of our community college partner will commence fall 2026.

UNITE-LA is grateful to the College Futures Foundation for supporting Certificates to Careers and investing in more equitable pathways to economic mobility for California learners.

For more information, please reach out to Antonio Ramirez, Director, L.A. Region K-16 Collaborative, at [email protected].