PASSHE Universities Pilot a New Program Connecting Majors to Careers

Kutztown, Shippensburg and PennWest will help students understand how their majors connect to the skills they build, careers they can pursue and wages they can earn.

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Students at three universities in Pennsylvania’s State System will soon get a clearer answer to one of the most important questions students face in college — What job can I do with this major? — as part of a new effort to enhance career advising so students can see exactly where a major leads.

The initiative, “Connecting Credentials to Careers,” will be piloted at Kutztown, Shippensburg and PennWest universities, with the potential to scale to other universities in the State System. The pilot will break down the skills students learn in each program, then match those skills to specific jobs and wages, so students and advisors can see the concrete path from a major to a career.

“Students come to the state universities of Pennsylvania with goals for their futures, and we want to give them every tool we can to achieve their dreams,” said Chancellor Christopher Fiorentino. “This pilot will help students see more clearly how what they are learning connects to career opportunities and how their education can open doors after graduation.”

Today, that information is often spread through course catalogs, program pages, advising notes and labor-market dashboards. The initiative will bring those pieces together in one place, allowing students, faculty and staff to create a clear academic and career plan.

"Students are often excited about a particular subject but are not always sure how they will translate that interest into a post-graduation path because they underestimate the knowledge and skills they gain through their program,” said Dr. Phil Cavalier, president, Kutztown University. “At KU, we have been working to help students understand how they can turn their passion into a profession. This grant will help faculty provide enhanced career counseling, giving our students greater clarity as they chart their path."

The two-year effort is supported by a $740,600 grant from the ECMC Foundation, awarded to the PASSHE Foundation, which is playing a growing role in driving innovation in Pennsylvania’s talent and workforce development strategy.

“Many college students pick a course of study because that is where their passion and talents lie, but the career paths are not always obvious or intuitive,” said PASSHE Foundation CEO Shelley Scherer. “This initiative will make connections between majors and careers, particularly the careers that are in high demand in Pennsylvania.”

For many students, that clarity is missing at exactly the moments it matters most — when they are deciding what to study, whether to transfer, how much to borrow, and what career to pursue. Many PASSHE university students weigh those choices while balancing affordability, family responsibilities and the realities of regional job markets.

That clarity gap is a common challenge in higher education. A 2026 study of college graduates by the Lumina Foundation and Gallup found that 53% of alumni nationwide wished they had received more career coaching while in college — the most frequently cited resource gap, ahead of every other need college graduates named.

The initiative will begin with 10 academic programs at the three pilot universities, and will include programs where the path is less obvious. Faculty will receive training and tools to help them share those connections during student advising, providing both students and faculty with new resources to plan a student’s path from the classroom to a career.

Fiorentino thanked the PASSHE Foundation and the ECMC Foundation for making the pilot possible.

The work builds on PASSHE’s existing collaboration with Credential Engine, which has helped the State System publish credential, skill, wage and job information into a single registry, and will be carried out with national partners including WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility. Other partners include Pennsylvania Highlands Community College, which will participate as a community college collaborator and representative of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges.

As Pennsylvania’s system of state universities, PASSHE serves students across the commonwealth’s regions, including rural communities and working learners for whom clear, local information about the route from education to career can shape whether they enroll, stay, transfer and finish.

About PASSHE
Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) is Pennsylvania’s public university system, with a mission to provide high-quality education at the lowest possible cost to students. State System universities award more than 20,000 degrees each year and have more than 800,000 living alumni, most of whom live in Pennsylvania.

The State System universities are Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Millersville University of Pennsylvania, PennWest University, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania and West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

About PASSHE Foundation
PASSHE Foundation drives innovations in talent strategy, delivers labor market insights to inform academic decisions, and invests in opportunities that help students complete their education and launch careers. Through these efforts, PASSHE Foundation benefits PASSHE’s 10 universities, its students and Pennsylvania’s employers by forging partnerships and raising funds that deliver a stronger workforce and a more competitive commonwealth.