Prepare Youth for the Careers of their Future
"We need to create a system that doesn’t throw people out into the world with some vague sense of an idea of who they can be. We need a strong system that supports people as they step out of high school. You know, being 18, it’s hard for sure. You’re dealing with a lot of uncertainty. And so I think … there just needs to be a general shift away from copy and paste traditional paths."
Jazmin, Workforce Training Program participant, age 19, Shared Lane focus group
Our work
Shared Lane works provide options for young people who face historic and systematic barriers to access postsecondary training that leads to good jobs and career pathways, by building the capacity of the adults who guide them. Shared Lane uniquely bridges secondary education and workforce training to facilitate opportunities for seamless transitions from high school to career training.
Our vision is that all young people graduate from high school with a strong plan that includes career skills training that leads to good jobs and career pathways.
Our mission is to build the capacity of the adults who guide them - teachers, counselors, advisors, youth advocates - by embedding career navigation in high school and expanding pathways to postsecondary success.
What We Believe
Passion, Purpose & Planning
Every young person deserves a chance to discover their passion and pursue a postsecondary plan with purpose.
Multiple
Pathways
It’s not college or career. There are multiple pathways to a good job. The timeline and pathway is different for everyone.
Educators are Partners to Youth
Young people are guided by trusted adults. Educators & advisors need resources & training to prepare young people for an ever-changing landscape of careers.
How we do it
We provide free resources for educators & future job seekers. We’ve built toolkits to explore in-demand careers in tech & allied healthcare.
We partner with schools to elevate postsecondary advising—integrating career navigation into everyday systems so that every student graduates with a plan grounded in purpose, possibility, and real opportunity
We bridge high school seniors to workforce training opportunities through a site based micro-training ‘Workforce Gateway’ internship
We facilitate an ‘Expanding Pathways Collaborative’ between high schools & workforce training providers to strategize how to prepare young adults to seamlessly transition to career training programs.
We empower educators to lead the way—offering high-impact training and tools that turn vision into action, and help schools build sustainable, student-centered pathways to economic mobility.
Who We Are
Julian Cohen
Founder and CEO
Julian is a lifelong NYC educator - a teacher and NYC school district administrator. Julian founded Shared Lane in 2021 drawing on his experiences working with young people and educators, designing new high schools, and developing a youth pipeline program at a workforce training program.
“I am passionate about education, equity and innovation. I believe that the path to economic mobility is a shared responsibility of youth and educators, and that we have an opportunity to de-silo high schools and postsecondary career training providers."
Shared Lane draws on professionals with extraordinary talent, passion, and commitment to youth
We’re in your lane
Shared Lane works to align how you can bridge young people to postsecondary pathways that lead to in-demand careers. We recognize that educators need resources and opportunities to learn about the changing workplace. We’re your partner to design career navigation pathways for your school or organization.
