College Board and CareerWise Announce Multi-Year Partnership to Expand Career Pathways for Students

College Board

• November 6, 2025

College Board and CareerWise announced today a four-year strategic partnership to expand high-quality career pathways for students nationwide. Together, the two organizations will connect advanced coursework with real-world experience through youth apprenticeship, starting with the rollout of College Board's new Advanced Placement^® (AP^®) Career Kickstart™ courses in business and cybersecurity and CareerWise's national apprenticeship network.

The partnership represents a bold step in reshaping the education-to-career ecosystem by aligning classroom learning with employer needs, policy priorities, and hands-on training. This creates valuable learning experiences for students.

"By partnering with CareerWise and linking AP Career Kickstart courses directly to paid apprenticeship opportunities nationwide, we're opening entirely new pathways for high schoolers to explore careers, practice critical skills, and make what they're learning matter," said David Coleman, CEO of College Board.

CareerWise, a national leader in youth apprenticeship, will collaborate with College Board to strengthen employer engagement, policy advocacy, and state-level adoption of its AP Career Kickstart courses. The initial focus will be in Colorado and New York City, and there are plans to expand nationwide. Early offerings include AP Business with Personal Finance and AP Cybersecurity. Additional courses in healthcare and other priority sectors are on the horizon. And that's not all. College Board will make a commitment to hire high-school apprentices at its New York offices over the life of the partnership.

"College Board's leadership in developing rigorous, industry-aligned coursework complements CareerWise's mission to open more doors to economic opportunity for young people," said Brent Parton, president of CareerWise. "Together, we can build a foundation of apprenticeship-ready schools-where AP coursework is intentionally aligned to both college and career pathways-showing how coordinated policy, credentials, and apprenticeships can transform the future of work for students and employers alike."

Over the next four years, the partnership will demonstrate how policy alignment, employer validation, high-quality coursework, and apprenticeship pathways can scale together to benefit students, schools, and businesses.

For more information, please contact:

Holly Stepp, Executive Director, College Board Media Relations, [email protected]

Shauna Harman, Director of Marketing and Communications, CareerWise, [email protected]