MBAE hosted the first event in its new, member-exclusive Lunch & Learn webinar series on April 16. Throughout this quarterly series, MBAE members and affiliates will learn from and engage with state and national experts in education on a range of education topics in an efficient 45 minutes during the lunch hour. 

Massachusetts Alliance for Early College’s (MA4EC) Executive Director Erika Giampietro kicked-off the series with a deep-dive on Early College – one of the most promising K–12 strategies that is addressing the state’s workforce needs and narrowing economic equity gaps.

During the webinar, Erika shared an overview of Early College’s evolution and impact since the program’s 2017 pilot. With Massachusetts projected to face a shortage of 200,000 college-educated residents by 2030, Early College stands out as a high-impact workforce strategy — driving a 14 percentage point increase in college enrollment among participants and increasing representation of low-income and racially diverse students in higher education.

Erika also shared MA4EC’s continued efforts to deepen career theming within the model to engage more students and create stronger connections to workforce opportunities. Erika pointed to the Early College program at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute as a model program with robust career integration, highlighting the sequenced courses, certifications, and experiential learning opportunities students in EC pathways like nursing, radiology, biotechnology, etc will master before college.

MBAE is a proud founding member of MA4EC and supports its goal to grow Early College participation to 25,000 students by 2030.

MBAE’s Lunch & Learn webinar series is just one of the many ways MBAE is bringing timely, expert-driven insights directly to its members. To learn more about how you can access content like this, visit our membership page or contact Pam O’Donnell at podonnell@mbae.org.