Designing Education Toward the Future of Work
We partner with educators and employers to redesign systems that meet the changing needs of New Majority Learners in a skills-based economy.
OUR APPROACH
Human-Centered Design to Systems-Level Change
The Lab doesn’t just design for the people closest to the problem. We design with them. By bringing learners into the room with employers and educators, we use human-centered design to ensure that solutions are not just efficient, but deeply responsive to the lived experiences of those the system has traditionally left behind. Through our design process, we test big ideas, scale what works, and shape how systems behave.
Learn more about our design approach →
WHO WE SERVE
New Majority Learners
We coined the term New Majority Learners to reflect the diverse group of individuals who now represent the majority of enrolled learners.
This growing demographic includes adult learners, first-generation students, learners of color, single parents, veterans, and others for whom postsecondary education was not designed.
Read More about New majority Learners →
COMMUNITY COLLEGES POWER THE FUTURE OF WORK
Community colleges are America’s most powerful engine for economic mobility — and where the majority of today’s learners begin, starting with dual enrollment pathways in high school. Serving more than 8.6 million learners each year — nearly 40% of all undergraduates — these institutions are designed for access, affordability, and real-world connection.
OUR EXPERTISE
Our human-centered design methodology engages learners, educators, and employers as co-designers to design and launch new solutions that address education-to-work challenges in collaborative ways.
We bring a team of expert facilitators (Education Designers) who lead high-impact, high-engagement sessions and design processes that engage participants in designing, testing, and scaling new learner-centered, career-connected learning solutions.
We bring a network of 130+ innovative community colleges interested in designing, testing, learning, and deploying new solutions using the Lab’s design process.
We’ve worked with foundations to issue RFPs and carefully identify, select, engage, and award sub-grants to partners who have designed, tested, and scaled new Learn-and-Work pathways and solutions for New Majority Learners.
OUR STRATEGIES
Change doesn’t happen one program at a time. It happens when we redesign systems.
We envision a future where learn-and-work systems are intentionally designed with and for New Majority Learners — systems that drive real economic mobility and close opportunity gaps.
In order to realize that vision, we’re focusing on four impact strategies that move from individual programs to full system transformation.
Strategy I
Scaling Skills-Based Pathways
Co-designing short-term, stackable, employer-validated pathways that connect learners to in-demand skills, real-world experience, and economic mobility.
Lab Programs + Services
- Micro-Pathways
- Early Pathways
- Work-Based Learning models
- Workforce Pell Pathway Design
- Skills Visibility
What Changes for Learners
- Clear link between education and earnings
- Flexible pathways that adapt to learners’ lives
- Paid, real-world experience built into learning
Learn More Scaling Skills-Based Pathways →
Strategy II
Fueling Community College Innovation
Working with community colleges and state systems to move innovation from short-term pilots to sustained institutional practice aligning strategies, policies, and operations with the realities of today’s New Majority Learners and the future of work.
Lab Programs + Services
- Reimagining Community Colleges: Combining human-centered design with traditional strategic planning
What Changes for Learners
- Consistent access to high-quality programs and support
- Systems built around real-life needs
- Programs and supports that are built to last
Learn More Fueling Community College Innovation →
Strategy III
Unlocking Regional + Rural Talent
Working with regions — especially rural communities — to move from fragmented efforts to coordinated talent ecosystems, aligning education, workforce, and employers around shared local workforce needs.
Lab Programs + Services
- Regional + Rural Talent Collaboratives
- Employer-Led Design Work
- Tribal Community Partnerships
What Changes for Learners
- Access to good jobs without leaving their community
- Coordinated supports that enable persistence and completion
- Direct connections to local employers and hiring pathways
Learn more Unlocking Regional + Rural Talent →
Strategy IV
Designing State Talent Systems
Partnering with states to design more coherent, skills-based talent systems — aligning education, workforce, and economic development so learners can move more easily between learning and work and access good jobs across regions and institutions.
Lab Programs + Services
- Learning Mobility Collaboratives
- Career Readiness System Design
- Workforce Pell Pathway Systems
What Changes for Learners
- Credentials recognized across institutions and employers
- Early access to college credit and career pathways
- High-quality pathways available statewide
Learn more About Designing State talent Systems →
OUR IMPACT
College, system and K-12 district partners
Community college partners
Workforce-aligned pathways
States where we’ve done work with colleges
We don’t just design programs — we design for system-level impact
We change systems by centering New Majority Learners in a collaborative process that results in a ripple effect of transformation across multiple levels, from individual programs and colleges, to regions and state systems.
We measure progress through four elements of change that signal system transformation:
IMPACT REPORTS
JUNE 2025
Multiplier Effect of Impact Investing
The Multiplier Effect of Impact Investing — for every $1 of seed investment by philanthropies to the Education Design Lab’s Community College Growth Engine, participating community colleges were able to unlock $8 in public and private funding to advance micro-pathways.
16 pages
NOVEMBER 2025
Colorado’s Community College Innovation
The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) partnered with Education Design Lab to center learners and employers in designing a statewide, stackable, skills-based education model in behavioral health.
20 pages
JULY 2025
Micro-Pathways Macro Impact
Offers a meta-analysis of four independent evaluations of Education Design Lab’s Community College Growth Engine program between 2021 to 2024, showing how the micro-pathways design process is leading to a ripple effect of institutional changes that better align education toward the future of work.
16 pages
Read Our Impact REPORTS →
Higher education is long overdue for a comprehensive redesign of its systems, policies, operations, workflows, student experiences, accountability practices, and norms. The core issue facing community colleges is not whether they can adapt to and survive disruption, but whether they are structurally designed to deliver the outcomes that today’s learners expect and society demands.
Dr. Mordecai Ian Brownlee
President of the Community College of Aurora (Colo.), and Education Design Lab board member
Read More about the Learner Revolution →
TRANSFORMING THE LEARN + WORK ECOSYSTEM
As an intermediary, we partner with colleges, employers, and public sector leaders to align the learn + work ecosystem to needs of New Majority Learners.
LATEST NEWS + UPCOMING EVENTS
SEPTEMBER 2026
What makes skills visible — and trusted?
A skill has little value if no one can see it, understand it, or trust it. Credential Engine and Education Design Lab explore what it takes to turn skills into signals that can open doors to opportunity.
SEPTEMBER 2026
Impact Snapshot: How N.C. community colleges are making durable skills visible
North Carolina community colleges worked with advanced manufacturing employers to turn critical thinking and initiative from vague hiring demands into more visible durable skills that can be taught and recognized in technical programs.
AUGUST 2026
A letter from our CEO about Education Design Lab’s new chapter
There are moments in an organization’s life when you pause, look at the work you’ve been doing, and realize the way you’re telling your story no longer fully captures who you’ve become. This is one…
AUGUST 2026
The Lab and Axim to make durable skills courses available as open educational resources (OER)
Education Design Lab’s full Durable Skills Framework — nine micro-credential courses and 27 sub-competency modules — is coming to the Open edX platform as freely available, open educational resources (OER) in fall 2026.
AUGUST 2026
Impact Snapshot: From auto detailing to banking: How a micro-pathway opened a door
Nathan Perez, 26, always had his sights set on a career in finance — he just needed a way to get there. Through the Community College of Rhode Island’s Banking Micro-pathway, he found not only…
AUGUST 2026
Impact Snapshot: IT micro-pathway at Bunker Hill Community College is making the American Dream possible
Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) in Boston is the second-largest community college in Massachusetts and one of the most diverse public institutions in New England. BHCC’s IT micro-pathway…