Nothing Can Stop Me: Career Pathways Participants' Motivations and Thoughts on Success

This brief is one in a series of three that describe early lessons from in-depth interviews with Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) study participants.  PACE is a ten-year random assignment evaluation of nine promising career pathways interventions aimed at increasing employment and self-sufficiency among low-income, low-skilled adults and youth.  For this brief, participants discussed several topics, including:  their motivations for enrolling in a career pathways program; how they define success in their selected program, and; how they view their chances of experiencing success, whether that be completing the program or some other measure respondents deemed important. The interviews are part of a qualitative sub-study designed to improve understanding of participants’ experiences.

Read the other two interviews:

• Finances, Family, Materials, and Time: Career Pathways Participants’ Perceived Challenges
• Programmatic and Other Supports Accessed by Career Pathways Participants