From campus to career: the new infrastructure of student career pathways & employability

Career pathways and employability have emerged as a strategic priority across higher education, creating a significant and growing addressable market for operators in this space. With public confidence in higher education at historic lows of 42% and 70% of employers now using skills-based hiring over traditional credentials, universities face unprecedented pressure to prove their career return on investment — and to deliver it.

Experiential learning — encompassing internships, study abroad, project-based learning, and other applied experiences — has become the primary bridge from education to employment. NACE research found that Gen Z professionals who participated in experiential learning during college earned an average salary of $59,059, compared to $44,048 for those who did not. These graduates also reported higher career satisfaction (81.3% vs. 72.6%) and faster-than-expected career progression.

In this sector update, we examine the forces reshaping experiential learning M&A — from the convergence of study abroad, internships, and workforce-aligned credentials into a unified student outcomes ecosystem, to the technology-enabled platforms redefining scale, margin, and user experience. Since 2020, the sector has recorded 166 transactions across seven sub-sectors, with deal activity in 2025 and 2026 reaching its highest sustained level since pre-pandemic.

Career pathways & employability at a glance

Career pathways and employability have emerged as a strategic priority across higher education, creating a significant and growing addressable market for operators in this space. Universities are under mounting pressure to demonstrate ROI, employment outcomes, and stronger student value propositions. The shift from enrichment to outcomes is accelerating — universities, students, and employers are all increasingly prioritizing employability, job placement, and measurable return. According to the NACE 2026 Job Outlook, only 42% of employers still screen GPAs, down from 73% in 2019; internships and demonstrated skills are now the top hiring factors.

The Open Doors 2025 Report confirmed that 298,180 U.S. students studied abroad in AY 2023/24, up 6% year-over-year, with over 444,000 students engaged in total global educational experiences. Market participants indicate this figure is expected to increase again in 2024/25. The same data show continued momentum toward flexible formats, with short-term and summer programs accounting for 62% of study abroad participation, and 33,078 students participating in non-credit experiential activities abroad.

Regulatory reinforcement

Federal policy is reinforcing the shift toward outcomes. The Biden administration’s 2023 Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment regulations required programs to demonstrate measurable earnings outcomes to maintain Title IV eligibility. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, extended that framework to virtually all degree programs through a new “Gainful Employment for All” earnings premium metric. On the employer side, the trend is equally clear: 70% of employers now use skills-based hiring for entry-level roles, and the message to institutions is unambiguous — programs must deliver demonstrable, career-relevant skills, not just credentials.

M&A trends & drivers

Experiential learning M&A has compounded at a strong pace since 2020, with 166 transactions across seven sub-sectors and deal activity in 2025 and 2026 reaching its highest sustained level since pre-pandemic. Career Services & Employability Platforms lead sub-sector volume, underscoring the market’s focus on outcomes-oriented infrastructure over traditional enrichment programming. The second-largest sub-sector, Study Abroad & International Education, reflects the continued post-pandemic rebound in cross-border student mobility.

The clearest example of active consolidation is CEA CAPA Education Abroad, backed by Infinedi Partners, which has executed a rapid platform roll-up, completing five acquisitions in 2024 and 2025 including Navagant-advised transactions for Atlantis and the Global Educators portfolio (CIS Abroad, CISaustralia, Barcelona SAE, and Performing Arts Abroad). Additional strategic buyers such as upGrad, QS Quacquarelli Symonds, and Keystone Education Group are actively acquiring, while financial sponsors including Infinedi Partners, Lumiere Education, AIM Equity Partners, and Lumiere have completed experiential learning investments over the past twelve months.

Key drivers of M&A activity

The high level of M&A activity is driven by structural factors: the shift from enrichment to outcomes, as institutions outsource experiential learning to specialist providers that can deliver measurable career ROI; technology enablement, with AI matching, workflow automation, and digital infrastructure becoming key differentiators for scale and margin; convergence across sub-sectors, as study abroad, internships, and workforce credentials merge into unified platforms offering cross-sell opportunities; and regulatory tailwinds, with federal Gainful Employment requirements and rising employer emphasis on skills-based hiring creating durable demand for outcomes-focused providers.

From enrichment to outcomes

A structural reorientation in how students and institutions define value is driving budget and program delivery toward specialist operators — and away from universities. Public confidence in higher education has fallen from 57% in 2015 to 42% in 2025 (Gallup-Lumina), a 15-percentage-point decline in a decade. At the same time, 58% of adults in Strada-Gallup’s 86,000-person survey cite job and career outcomes as the primary reason for pursuing higher education — more than two and a half times the next most common motivation — and graduates with a paid internship are 1.7x more likely than those without one to land a degree-requiring first job (73% versus 44%).

Institutions that cannot demonstrate career ROI are increasingly outsourcing experiential learning, internships, and workforce credentials to specialist operators — creating a durable demand signal for third-party providers capable of delivering outcomes-focused programming at scale. This dynamic has driven both strategic acquirers and financial sponsors to pursue platform-building strategies across Career Services, Study Abroad, and Workforce Development sub-sectors, with leaders like CEA CAPA Education Abroad, WorldStrides, and INTO University Partnerships actively consolidating fragmented provider landscapes.

Notable transactions

Four representative transactions from the past twelve months illustrate the themes driving sector consolidation: academic pathways platform expansion, Indian career-services roll-ups, institutional software consolidation, and academic summer program platform plays.

Buyer universe

The experiential learning buyer landscape includes a diverse mix of strategic operators and financial sponsors actively building scale in this sector. Navagant maintains long-standing relationships with many of these organizations through recent transactions and ongoing sector coverage. Understanding the strategic and financial participants in this space helps founders and operators assess competitive positioning, partnership opportunities, and the broader market context in which their businesses operate.

Navagant case studies

Representative transactions from Navagant’s experiential learning practice, showcasing our expertise across multi-brand roll-ups, pre-professional experiential programs, career exploration platforms, and specialty student insurance and study travel services.