The Broken Marketplace Summit
Services
- Event branding + creative design
- Event curation + activation
- Actionable strategic recommendations
- Targeted social campaign
The need
The Schultz Family Foundation, in partnership with HarrisX, released groundbreaking research that revealed the extent of America’s broken school-to-work marketplace. Millions of young adults are striving to build stable, fulfilling lives, but find themselves underemployed, over-credentialed, or unsupported by systems that no longer match the realities of today’s labor market. Parents, educators, and employers are also navigating with outdated or incomplete information, leaving young people without clear, navigable pathways.
To move this research from insights to solutions, the Schultz Family Foundation engaged NationSwell to design and host the Broken Marketplace Summit that would convene leaders across sectors to address the challenges surfaced in the findings and begin charting a path forward.
The action
On July 15, 2025, NationSwell, in partnership with the Schultz Family Foundation and HarrisX, convened the Broken Marketplace Summit at LinkedIn’s headquarters in New York City. The gathering brought together 60+ leaders across business, philanthropy, education, workforce development, and government for a day of candid, action-oriented conversation.
NationSwell designed an impactful agenda that featured the release of the Broken Marketplace Report and new data presented by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Emes Project) and Dritan Nesho (HarrisX). Leaders also heard insights from experts including Gad Levanon (The Burning Glass Institute) and Jon Schnur (America Achieves), with remarks from Sheri Schultz and Vivek Varma of the Schultz Family Foundation.
Interactive panels and small-group discussions invited leaders to co-create ideas for redesigning the systems that guide young people into careers. We balanced rigorous data with diverse perspectives, creating trusted space for candid dialogue, and weaving together plenary sessions with intimate breakouts that sparked candor, connection, and collaboration.
Participants engaged with the latest findings, shared perspectives on the misalignment between education and work, and examined the cultural overvaluation of four-year degrees, the rise of alternative credentials, and the role of technology and AI in reshaping opportunity.
The impact
The Broken Marketplace Summit demonstrated the power of convening cross-sector leaders in one room to move from data to dialogue to action. Participants engaged directly with new research, surfaced candid perspectives from their own institutions, and found common ground on the barriers facing young people and the opportunities to design better pathways. The conversations built trust among leaders who rarely have the chance to connect across silos, and the format encouraged frank exchange, reflection, and the beginnings of collaboration.
Leaders left with clearer insights into how AI, credentialism, and outdated guidance systems are shaping the workforce, and a renewed commitment to building solutions together. The event also created momentum for what comes next. Launching in Fall 2025, NationSwell’s Workforce Innovation Collaborative will carry this work forward, providing a trusted space for leaders to explore emerging trends, surface bold practices, and co-design scalable solutions. Members will build on the relationships and learnings seeded at the summit, translating insight into action through targeted workstreams and collective strategy.
The Broken Marketplace Summit showed that when NationSwell brings leaders together, they leave not only with knowledge, but with the connections and commitments needed to drive real change.
