This week, we officially launched Springpod in Rhode Island — and with it, a new approach to helping students connect learning to real careers. Across our state, we hear two consistent truths:
1. Employers need future talent that understands workplace expectations, core skills, and real opportunity. Since 2017, Skills for Rhode Island’s Future has partnered with more than 500 employers—large and small—across Rhode Island, all seeking job-ready talent. Consistently, employers share the same concern: too many students are entering the workforce unprepared, both from high school and college.
National data reinforces what Rhode Island employers are experiencing firsthand. Eighty-four percent of hiring managers report that high school graduates lack the skills needed for the workforce, and 50 percent of college graduates say their degree did not adequately prepare them for the job market. These gaps are not about ability or ambition—they reflect a disconnect between education and the realities of work, underscoring the need for earlier, clearer, and more experiential career learning.
2. Students are eager to learn but unsure how school connects to the world of work. In fact, SkillsRI’s manages the only statewide high school internship program in Rhode Island—PrepareRI. Since its launch in 2018, more than 10,000 students have expressed interest in participating. However, due to limited funding and placement capacity, only 3,300 students have been placed to date. This gap underscores not a lack of motivation, but a strong and unmet demand for experiential, learn-by-doing opportunities among Rhode Island’s youth.
Through PrepareRI, SkillsRI has also seen firsthand how limited exposure to careers impacts student decision-making. More than 65% of participating students list “undecided” as their top career choice, highlighting a widespread lack of awareness of career pathways and the skills required to pursue them. These findings reinforce what students consistently tell us: they are eager to learn, but unsure how academic learning connects to real-world work—and they need earlier, clearer exposure to make informed choices about their futures.
Between those truths is a gap—not caused by a lack of effort or ambition, but by systems that have not kept pace with the world of work. Closing it begins with reimagining how learning connects to work.
That belief is what brings Skills for Rhode Island’s Future and Springpod together—to partner with employers, schools, and communities to deliver virtual career-connected learning at scale.
Strong academics open doors; career-connected learning shows students what is behind them. Virtual experiences help students connect core subjects to real careers, build confidence through application, and make informed choices about what comes next—while enabling employers to engage early, flexibly, and at scale.
This approach works, and the evidence is clear. Springpod’s virtual work-based learning programs have supported more than 1 million young people, delivering over 4 million hours of high-quality career-connected learning in just the past few years. Before participating, only 1 in 2 students reported confidence in their ability to find a job in the future. After completing a program, 91% felt confident or very confident, and awareness of career pathways increased from 50% to 99%. These aren’t abstract outcomes—they represent students gaining clarity, confidence, and direction, and employers engaging meaningfully with future talent at scale. This is what happens when learning is intentionally connected to the world of work.
We are grateful to our inaugural partners—Citizens, Gilbane, Brown University Health, General Dynamics Electric Boat, Rhode Island College, Johnson & Wales University, and NEIT—and to our funders and champions—U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, the U.S. Department of Labor, Electric Boat, and Citizens Bank—for making this work possible.
But this is only the beginning.
If you are an employer, your insight helps define readiness.
If you are a school or district, career exploration belongs alongside academic learning.
If you are a funder or civic leader, early exposure strengthens our workforce and economy.
Ready to lead in career-connected learning? Join us and be part of what’s next.
