workforce education

America Needs a New Workforce Education System

Developing large-scale workforce education programs that enable workers to advance or change industries will not only reduce income inequality, but also support domestic innovation..

The American dream promised that if you worked hard, you could move up, with well-paying, working-class jobs providing a gateway to an ever-growing middle class. Today, however, the nation is seeing increasing inequality rather than economic convergence. Technological advances, combined with profound labor market shifts during the pandemic, are putting quality jobs out of reach for workers who lack the proper skills and training. One of the best ways to address this challenge is to improve workforce education.

Learning on the job has, of course, long been a feature of most occupations. But developing formal programs that allow most workers to advance from their current position or to even change industries has not been a priority for decades. Yet both research and practical experience have shown that such programs, designed to improve skills and education over the course of an employee’s work life, are precisely what is needed. Not just any jobs program will do. They must be carefully focused, flexible enough to meet emerging needs, and tailored to lifelong learning. Failure to meet these requirements could consign millions of workers to dead-end jobs during their most productive years.

The benefits of developing large-scale programs for workforce education will extend beyond the already considerable ones of addressing inequality. A more skilled workforce also contributes to innovation. Industrial policy in the United States has largely focused on two preproduction tasks aimed at earlier-stage innovation: support for agencies funding academic and lab research and development, and support for industry R&D through the federal R&D tax credit. But there hasn’t been a complementary workforce education thrust. Indeed, many economists view science and engineering at the college and graduate school levels as the principal educational key to future growth. Yet as innovation diffuses into production—be it robotic welding or new coating technologies—R&D has proven to be not the only educational need. A skilled technical workforce has an innovation role as well—in programming the robotic welders, for example, and in improving the coating technologies.

THE SOCIAL DISRUPTION IS REAL

Overall, job opportunities for high school graduates have shrunk significantly in recent years. For example, the share of men of prime working age with no college experience who are not working at all reached 18% in 2013. At the same time, median income for men who had not completed high school fell by 20% between 1990 and 2013 and by 13% for those with a high school diploma or some college. In a country that prides itself on its social mobility, this was a clear signal of a loss to middle-income ranks and of growing social inequality, as well as a harbinger of a postindustrial backlash.

A closer look at two sectors—manufacturing and retail—reveals the turmoil. Historically, manufacturing has been an important middle-class pathway for high school educated males—including African Americans and Hispanic Americans. From 2000 to 2010, however, manufacturing employment fell by 5.8 million jobs (or almost a third), from 17.3 million to 11.5 million. And by 2015, it had recovered to only about 12 million jobs, where it remains.

Retail, which often offers a first job or a job of refuge, is in trouble as well, as stores, malls, and entire chains have closed over the past decade. First, the extraordinary expansion in the second half of the 20th century crashed against the 2008 financial crunch. Then the disruptive growth of online ordering accelerated a decline in in-person retail even further. Warehousing positions offset some of this job loss, but they went to different people—female store clerks weren’t hired to do heavy lifting in warehouses. Fifteen million people were employed in retail trades at the beginning of 2020. Then the coronavirus hit.

The pandemic has been a shock not just to retail but to much of the system. The volume of jobs lost has been dramatic. Restaurants lost 5.5 million jobs in April 2020, then reopenings during the summer let the industry regain some jobs, only to lose them again with the spike in infections during the fall. Similarly, retail lost 2.3 million store jobs in April, rebounded by a million jobs by June, but by fall the job numbers were falling again. In travel and tourism, 35% of the jobs have been lost since February 2020. These aren’t the only hard-hit sectors, but they are big ones. Many jobs in retail, the restaurant industry, tourism, and travel won’t be coming back: bankruptcies are already climbing. Millions of workers in these sectors will be stranded.

This latest disruption will make American economic inequality even worse than it was before the pandemic. Workers from hard-hit sectors will need to shift to new sectors where there will be jobs. And to thrive, they must get not just any job but quality jobs. While lower-end services jobs had been growing as the middle class thinned out, new Labor Department data show the coronavirus has now hit that sector, so job openings will tend to require higher skills.

Opportunities exist. Health care, for example, is embracing suites of new technologies that will require skilled technologists at good pay. Manufacturing and utilities have aging workforces that will require millions of new workers in coming years, albeit for increasingly skilled jobs. The trick to minimizing further disruption will be to provide the skills and training needed to educate and shape the current worker pool.

WANTED: WORKER SKILLS AND HUMAN SKILLS

The United States was the first nation to develop mass higher education programs, and we used them as an engine for innovation as well as economic and social mobility. The high school degree was once the acceptable basic credential, but has since been displaced. A college degree is now the key differentiator for economic well-being.

Higher education is also a complex, established “legacy” sector, reluctant to change and adapt its operating modes to fit new needs. Although many of the necessary prerequisites are disconnected from actual job and life skills, college degrees have become a default credential for employers because there are no others that are as widely accepted and used.

Business requires new skills, particularly in information technology, so the workforce as a whole requires upskilling—current workers as well as incoming college graduates and those without college degrees. And yet universities have not embraced or contributed to these workforce developments.

Herein lies an opportunity for institutions of higher learning, particularly at a time when they themselves face increasing financial pressure: they can offer more career-related skills in addition to what they teach now. This approach may enable them to reach beyond their current declining demographic of 18- to 26-year-olds. Some critics have worried that this shift might erode liberal art traditions. We argue the opposite: in fact “human skills” such as critical thinking, creativity, writing, and communicating are in high demand, and can flourish in this new configuration.

Unlike many European nations, the United States never built a comprehensive workforce education system. So perhaps it comes as no surprise that current programs lack the proper focus, are small in scale, and siloed from each other. The Department of Labor’s training programs don’t reach the oncoming higher technical skills or help incumbent workers acquire them. In turn, the Department of Education’s programs tend to target college, not workforce education, and don’t mesh with the Labor programs. With the exception of a few states, such as Massachusetts, the vocational education system in high schools has largely been dismantled. And community colleges, which could provide advanced training in emerging fields, are largely underfunded—not to mention that their completion rates hover around a third.

Most colleges and universities don’t see workforce education as their bailiwick and so aren’t linked to the other participants in the system. Overall, the education system is disconnected from the workplace, and a system for lifelong learning is missing. In addition, the existing workforce education system operates at too small a scale to meet the growing demand. The system needs not only reforms but also the ability to reach many more people, more effectively. Online education is one tool that can help with the scale-up—if applied correctly.   Addressing these problems should help to reduce economic inequality and deepen our capacity for innovation.

THE NEW COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRY

Community colleges could become the cornerstone of a robust, much-needed workplace education system. A number of these institutions, some highlighted below, have already begun to show the way. They will all need additional building blocks, however, to achieve the necessary scale and flexibility of offerings.

Asnuntuck Community College is in the middle of an aerospace industry corridor along the Connecticut River Valley. It has developed advanced manufacturing certificate programs, using a new state-supported, state-of-the-manufacturing-art equipment center. Enrollees include not only its own students, but also high school students as well as workers at area companies, small and large.

Valencia College in Florida set out to reach a large economic underclass stuck in low-end, low-paid, part-time service jobs. It tailored various short programs to help students quickly get on a career ladder leading to secure jobs with benefits that can support families. Each program lasted 10 to 22 weeks, five days per week for eight hours a day. Valencia offered industry-standard certificates in advanced manufacturing, construction, heavy equipment, logistics, and health care fields. Importantly, these certificates could be stacked for multiple, certified complementary skills and credits toward a Valencia associate degree.

Trident Technical College in Charleston, South Carolina, worked with area firms and the state’s Chamber of Commerce to develop a new youth apprenticeship program beginning in the junior year of high school. Students employed by participating companies go to high school classes in the morning, where they must take math and science, to the college at midday for technical courses, and to their sponsoring company for well-paying jobs in afternoons. This takes them out of a sometimes-disruptive high school culture into higher-expectation environments. By tearing down the wall between learning and work, the program places entry-level workers on a path to quality jobs and education.

Elsewhere, the US military has pioneered efforts to teach hands-on skills through virtual and augmented reality. The Navy’s Training Systems Division in Florida, for example, has developed programs that use online simulations run on touch screens and high-end gaming computers. The Navy is now shifting a substantial amount of its training for advanced equipment on ships, submarines, and at air bases into these online systems.

KEY FOUNDATIONS

Several elements are common to the most successful programs for workplace education. They include:

• Forming short programs . Programs focused on technical skills should typically run for 10 to 20 weeks. People who have been in the workforce won’t be able to take off time for two- or four-year degrees; they have families to support and obligations to meet.
• Embracing credentialing.  Programs should provide certificates for specific groups of related skills, based on demonstrated competencies. These should be stacked toward college degrees and credits, which remain the most broadly recognized credentials.
• Supporting competency-based education . Programs should be organized around demonstrated skills broken down into particular competencies, unlike today’s education that is based on an agricultural calendar and standard completion times. If students show the skill competency, they get the certificate, regardless of how long they have spent in the program. This can cut time in school and student costs, and reward practical experience.
• Developing appropriate online education.  Online modules will be critical if workforce education is going to scale up to meet postpandemic needs. And yet online education can’t replace effective instructors or hands-on work with actual equipment. Online education is best suited to conveying and assessing the foundational information behind the skills.
• Breaking down the work/learn barrier . Programs should be linked to industry, as today’s schools have become too disconnected from the workplace. Linkage programs in the form of apprenticeships, internships, and cooperative programs are needed to get students into the workplace, earning money while they build skills. At the same time, they can make a direct connection between the competencies they must learn for greater job opportunities.
• Improving completion rates . Completion rates at community colleges should be at least 70%, up from the 30% rate at many of them today. Frustration with required remedial prep courses leads many students to drop out. Successful programs have found one solution in integrating the supportive course work into students’ study program for career skills so they can clearly see how the remedial work is relevant to their career opportunities.
• Embedding industry-recognized credentials into educational programs . Many employers want the assurance of skill knowledge that a credential approved and accepted by industry provides. It creates an additional and parallel pathway to help students toward employment. It also ensures that academic programs are relevant to actual industry needs.

The latest research on workforce education is quite clear. Federal resources need to scale up. States, with backing from federal education funds, must implement the new strategies outlined above. Some states and employers, and the community colleges they work with, are starting to embrace these steps. The workforce disruption from the pandemic could be a driver that forces further action. A more equitable and innovative future is possible, provided we leave our previously scattershot approaches behind.

This story was originally published in Issues in Science and Technology on March 9, 2021.

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What works in workforce development—and how can it work better?

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March 8, 2023

For the past two years, a bipartisan group of researchers and analysts convened by the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Project on Workforce has reviewed the evidence on the effectiveness of the United States’ federal-state workforce education and training system. Our group—the Workforce Futures Initiative (WFI)—has reached some surprising and hopefully useful conclusions about how our nation can improve its investments in job training.

The good news is that federal spending on workforce development—including the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) system—improves disadvantaged worker outcomes. The bad news is that improvements are quite modest. In the words of one of our group members, we appear to be “stuck in a low-resource, low-efficacy” equilibrium. Small benefits at low levels of funding discourage higher levels of investment; yet without additional funding, it is unlikely we’ll see substantial improvement. At the same time, students and workers lack other options to finance training—for instance, Pell grants do not cover noncredit or shorter-term training efforts. The WIOA system, and the workers who use it, are caught in a policy catch-22.

Greater public investment in workforce development programs is needed. But these additional investments should be targeted toward programs and practices that have proven successful and can be scaled, or that provide information that is critical to diagnose the needs of a rapidly changing labor market. Examples include sectoral employment programs, job counseling and supportive services, improvements to data systems to better track program performance and improve our understanding of changing skill demands, and pilot programs to test ways of increasing system flexibility and innovation.

Sectoral employment programs substantially improve employment and wage outcomes for workers. These programs are distinctive in their focus on high-growth sectors of the economy such as information technology, health care, and advanced manufacturing. The federal government should substantially increase investment in these programs, focusing on replication and scaling of programs with track records of success. For our most disadvantaged students and workers, who sometimes have difficulty qualifying for participation in these programs, additional supports and “on-ramp” programs should be considered.

We should also strengthen the “connective tissue” of supportive services. Education, training, and employment systems are decentralized, and the bewildering array of options can overwhelm workers who are juggling busy lives on top of their training needs. Barriers related to transportation, child care, and mental health often cause program participants to exit programs early. This is a lost opportunity. Moreover, the evidence shows that counseling and supportive services, both of which are integral to the sectoral strategies mentioned above, substantially increase program completion and labor market success. Investments in support services for post-secondary training participants such as community college students and displaced workers can yield high returns.

A third critical need is for innovation in the nation’s workforce data infrastructure. Workers are pressured by technological change and automation, which makes it critical to modernize our education and training systems to keep up with change. We need better information about which jobs are growing and which programs are effective at developing needed skills. For example, one member of our group is developing a framework for decentralizing regional labor market information systems that will help states and regions develop deep and agile data systems for measuring program performance as well as changing skill and employment needs.

Finally, the evidence of “what works” in training and workforce development programs is remarkably sparse . Even if political will existed for a full-scale, far-reaching reform of WIOA, community colleges, and other elements of our workforce system, it would be imprudent, based on what we know, to recommend a one-size-fits-all model for all regions and priority industries.

In light of this uncertainty, we need strategies that unleash innovation at the state and regional levels and among industries. Part of the answer to this challenge is providing state and local officials substantial flexibility in testing new program structures and models that bridge public, private, and nonprofit institutions; are responsive to fast-changing demand patterns; and meet the differing needs of populations ranging from English language learners to working adults to the formerly incarcerated. Such experiments deserve more financial and implementation support from the federal government, opportunities for administrative flexibility, and comprehensive evaluation to help inform future rounds of system reform.

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Bridging the gap between education and employment: Community college and beyond

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The pandemic underscored an urgent need: The best-educated workers are prospering, but too many others are being left behind. To address this challenge, community colleges can be rich resources for educating the higher-skilled workers that industry is now demanding. However, schools, working with employers and policymakers, must do more to bridge the gap between education and employment.

This July, in a statewide effort to build new education models for advanced skills, MIT Open Learning and MassBridge hosted “Bridging the Education/Workforce Gap: Community College and Beyond,” a two-day conference with thought leaders from all parts of the education-workforce equation to explore how to expand and create new training opportunities that prepare students for quality jobs. Building on new models discussed in a recent MIT study ( MassBridge Advanced Manufacturing Education Benchmark Report ), speakers shared further ideas on how to bridge that gap between education and employment across many different sectors.

Throughout the conference, some common themes emerged:

• The workforce needs agile learners who can upskill easily.
• Industry needs change rapidly, so training programs need to adapt accordingly.
• Partnerships with employers in the industry are key.
• Courses, apprenticeships, and credentialing need to be accessible to all learners.

Day 1: Education perspectives

On the first day of programming, professionals from community colleges, state government, and industry recognized the growing need for adaptable workforce training programs at both the entry level and the incumbent worker level, which will require strong partnerships between educational programs and employers. George Westerman, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a principal research scientist at J-WEL Workforce Learning, says “We need a new model for employers to help create the workers they need, rather than trying to find them.” A flexible hybrid online/in-person model would allow a wider range of students to access and complete these programs. Training programs should emphasize “ human skills ” that workers will still be able to leverage even as hard skills evolve.

In “The Changing Face of Community College Education,” panelists who work at community colleges discussed the growing demand for incumbent worker training and fast-tracked entry-level workforce training. Repackaging curricula with tangible milestones such as “stackable credentials”  would accelerate the path to a degree for part-time students, they said. Focusing on “credentials of value” can embed employer needs from local industry in courses.

Moderated by Bob LePage, Massachusetts assistant secretary for career education, a panel on the role of education policy focused on the opportunities to rebuild and modernize the education system. The pandemic has shown that a hybrid education approach could be an equitable strategy that combines the best of digital access and hands-on activities to accelerate student learning. Beyond the classroom, schools need scalable work-based learning opportunities beyond registered apprentices. Federal and state policymakers are also looking to embed industry partnerships into the traditional degree model, speakers said.

In “A Cross-industry Look at Education Needs,” panelists from Mass Tech College and University, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center discussed the challenges of finding qualified candidates for technical jobs. They envisioned a system for incentivizing these difficult-to-fill positions by partnering with community colleges to offer short-term training for lower-wage workers. By training the existing workforce, employers can better evolve to fit their own needs.

A keynote presentation from Bill Bonvillian, senior director of special projects at MIT Open Learning and lecturer at MIT, and Sanjay Sarma, vice president for open learning, focused on the high labor nonparticipation rates that have been building over the last 15 years and exacerbated by the pandemic. Recent reports show millions of higher-skilled jobs are going unfilled because we lack the workforce education system to train those who can fill them. The labor market information chain is broken: Workers don’t know what skills they need, educators don’t know what skills to educate for, and employers don’t know what skills workers have. “The social contract of universities has to change,” Sarma said. “Ideally, such a contract would provide “a holistic education to people who need it in the workforce.”

Drawing from Bonvillian and Sarma's recent book " Workforce Education ," Bonvillian offered recommendations for new delivery models of training, such as breaking down the work/learning barrier with more apprenticeships; creating “trifecta” programs at community colleges that reach high school students, community college students, and incumbent workers; implementing short courses that lead to certificates and degrees for students who are already in the workforce and have time restraints; and integrating federal programs at the state level. Bonvillian said, “Designing programs that complement each other ... blurring the line between degrees and credentials, filling gaps where Pell grants don't help on workforce needs — these are all programs that have come right out of those combined education-industry efforts.”

Day 2: Industry, government, and student perspectives

Workers of the future will need to be trained in digital literacy, hands-on abilities, and critical thinking. Speakers on the second day of programming indicated a strong drive, persistence, and curiosity from community college students that can be fostered through targeted training programs.

In the panel “Up and Coming,” MIT mechanical engineering lecturer John Liu moderated a conversation with a group of current and former community college students who returned to school after a stint in the workforce to pursue training in another field. Their motivations ranged from pursuing their passions to helping others to creating a more stable future for themselves. One panelist, Mussie Demisse, was a former Bunker Hill Community College student who went on to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from MIT . Demisse said the MassHire program, which supports student success through state funding and industry involvement via individual coaching and internships, “aligned their goals with mine for my betterment, and that made it easier for me to align my goals with them.”

Keynote speaker Celeste Carter, lead program director for advanced technological education at the National Science Foundation (NSF), shared how the NSF developed a program that looked at innovative strategies to educate the skilled technical workforce. Carter said communication with students is hugely important to training programs. “There’s a lot of curiosity, a lot of persistence, a lot of really smart people at two-year institutions. We need to take advantage of it,” she said.

In a panel on statewide agency and collaboration, statewide education leaders who work for different institutions in different states shared how they have seen similar successes through partnerships, listening, and flexibility. Panelists said it’s important to have a flexible program structure that can adapt to these evolving needs of employers and students. Amy Firestone of Apprentice Carolina and South Carolina’s Technical College System shared how their “3D process” (which stands for “discovery, design, and delivery”) informed their program.

Crossing organizational boundaries

Across two days of panel discussions, educators, policymakers, industry leaders, and students spoke to the success of partnerships between educational institutions and employers. If employers have a vested interest in the outcomes of training programs, students will be trained with the current needs of their industries in mind, and will be better prepared for the workforce upon graduation, they said.

"One word we heard a lot during this conference is “partnership,” and that’s so important,” says Westerman. “Because we have a gap, and you can't cross this gap on your own. We all know that crossing organizational boundaries is an unnatural act, and so we all have to find ways to get across there."

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Closing the skills gap: Creating workforce-development programs that work for everyone

“The land of opportunity”— that is the promise of the United States. And one of the reasons the country has been able to deliver on that promise is that it has been able to develop the talent it needs to create wealth and to adapt to ever-changing economic realities. But there are concerns that the United States can and should be doing better. This will require policies and actions on many fronts, for example on trade, taxation, regulation, education, and fiscal and monetary policy. In this article, we focus on a single subject: preparing people without college degrees for jobs with promising career paths. The need, for both business and society, is clear.

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On the one hand, almost 40 percent of American employers say they cannot find people with the skills they need, even for entry-level jobs. Almost 60 percent complain of lack of preparation, even for entry-level jobs. On the other hand, this “skills gap” represents a massive pool of untapped talent, and it has dire consequences, including economic underperformance, social unrest, and individual despair.

The skills gap takes different forms. In some cases, it is a matter of youth struggling to enter the workforce; in others, it is midcareer learners who have lost their jobs because of factory closings or layoffs, and who now must adapt. Whatever the circumstance, when people are disconnected from the workplace, they often disconnect from other social institutions as well. This is not healthy—neither for those left out nor for the societies in which they live.

Recognizing the importance of this subject, McKinsey has done extensive research on global workforce-development programs and economic strategies. 1 1. Dominic Barton, Diana Farrell, and Mona Mourshed, “ Education to employment: Designing a system that works ,” January 2013. We have also worked with a number of state, local, and national governments.

So based on our research and experience, we have identified five principles that we believe should be the foundation of workforce-development programs—for funders, participants, and employers (Exhibit 1).

1. Define geographic assets and identify target professions. To get where they want to go, state and local agencies need to know where they are starting. Even at the local level, economies are complicated.

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The most promising approach, then, is to identify sectors with high growth potential where there are shortages or a high turnover of workers. Governments should conduct job-market analyses to identify each area’s distinctive attributes and supply-and-demand dynamics, as well as the current state of the workforce. This means looking at posted job vacancies, public infrastructure investment, demographics, local university-research commercialization, venture-capital spending, and regulation. The analysis should be done at the city and regional levels, and then buttressed by interviews with major companies in the area.

We have found the best workforce-development solutions happen when leading employers come together to address the talent problem for an entire sector. Assuming there are no antitrust issues, such collaborations can be attractive to industry competitors because the training costs are shared and the risk of poaching is limited. Such efforts typically take three forms: down a supply chain, with an anchor company taking the lead in encouraging its suppliers to participate; by a functional profession (for example, mechatronics) that is in demand by employers in different industries in the same location; and by sector, with competitors collaborating because they all face the same talent problem. One example of the latter is the Automotive Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative, which includes 19 automotive companies and 26 community colleges in 13 states.

In addition, government must ask itself whether it has the capabilities to meet the needs of businesses. This can be done simply—ask. Then, based on the responses, work with industry leaders, education providers, government agencies, and trade associations to identify the highest priorities on which to focus.

Successful economic-development efforts develop long-term strategies and make investment decisions based on hard data. A clear-eyed view allows decisions to be made based on a region’s actual strengths, and avoids chasing economic-development fads where there is no basis for competitive advantage. The advice is ancient, but pertinent: know thyself.

2. Deliver ROI to employers and workers. Hard evidence of return on investment (ROI) for workforce-development programs is scarce, for both employers and workers. That lack of proof is why many employers are reluctant to participate in workforce programs, much less to pay for them. Therefore, metrics that link such programs to business performance should be tracked, including the cost of program recruitment and training, employer productivity and quality outcomes, retention, and speed to promotion.

Recent federal legislation, known as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), aims to make the workforce-development system more outcome driven and to emphasize training that leads to jobs. Gathering employer ROI data is not only important for employers but can also help local agencies meet WIOA requirements.

If the ROI case can be proved, our research and experience shows that employers are willing to pay for training programs—up to 15 percent (or roughly two months) of the employee’s annual salary, on average. In areas of extreme scarcity, they will do much more. Apprenticeship 2000, a consortium based in Charlotte, North Carolina, comprises eight manufacturers that collaborate with the local community college on a mechatronics apprenticeship. It costs members $175,000 per candidate over four years.

With respect to participants, few employment programs gather evidence of effectiveness. Some track job placement at completion, or retention after one to three months. Few programs, however, follow a range of metrics to show potential participants that their investment in time and effort will pay off with personal and financial well-being. No wonder many job-training candidates are wary. Successful programs, in contrast, can show candidates evidence that the program will place them in jobs with a future after finishing the course.

Once on the job, metrics to track include the income of program graduates before and after completion, continued employment, job promotion, and reliance on public support. These findings can help reveal what works—and just as important—what doesn’t. Programs that fall short can then be cut in favor of those that succeed.

3. Support comprehensive, demand-driven training methods. Local, state, and federal agencies have made numerous efforts to work with businesses, regional groups, education providers, and other stakeholders to deliver effective job training. Some training programs are excellent—others, not so much. Evidence does exist, however, of models that work in a variety of industry and regional contexts (Exhibit 2).

In successful programs, employers are involved from the start and guarantee interviews for graduates. Once providers decide which sectors and which high-scarcity or high-turnover professions to pursue, the next step is to shadow employees on the job in those professions. The goal is to identify which activities most differentiate high from low performers and to translate this insight into training for the right technical, behavioral, and mind-set skills which include attributes such as punctuality, diligence, and follow-through). Such observation is important, because our experience is that many employers are unable to accurately describe which skills matter most, leading to errors in program design.

In delivering training, one proven approach is to provide two- to three-month “boot camps.” During the boot camp, competency is assessed regularly, based on actual demonstrations. Employers collaborate with the training providers and can offer their staff as trainers. The boot camp must be practical, including in-person simulations, on-site apprenticeships, and “serious games” customized to the workplace, where learners can play virtually and repeatedly. Programs need to have a strong in-person component to deliver the necessary dosage of intensive practice and to build the trust that allows providers to support learners—many of whom face multiple life challenges. At the same time, technology-based solutions, such as online applications, mobile apps that track learner performance, and digital workplace simulations can significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of these in-person programs.

To reach the people who need these programs most—meaning those at risk of being disconnected from the workforce because of background or education—accessibility is critical. Meeting their needs for transportation or child care during the boot camp, for example, helps make it possible for them to succeed. Programs that respond to these needs see higher completion rates. Some go even further, providing postgraduate mentorship for the first few months on the job, which is the period of greatest vulnerability. If individuals can make it through the first three months on the job, the odds of them continuing to thrive professionally and personally rise significantly.

Education to employment: Designing a system that works

4. Assess and prepare learners before they start training. Programs need to start by ensuring that learners are ready to train for the professions to which they apply. For example, they must be able to meet job-licensing requirements, such as having a high-school diploma, or pass a background check or a drug test; they also need to show job-appropriate literacy and numeracy levels.

Once this basic screening is done, there are ways to improve retention in the program and in the job. One is simple: make sure that people know what the job is before they start the training. This explanation must cover both positive and negative aspects, and might include things such as showing videos, hosting discussions of a “day in the life” with workers, and spending time at the job site. Someone training to be a certified nursing assistant, for example, needs to know that the position can be physically demanding and requires shift work.

When people understand what it takes to succeed at a given job, they are more likely to choose one that is right for them. That, in turn, improves program completion, job placement, and retention. It also ensures that program resources are spent on those who are most likely to benefit.

5. Coordinate the workforce-development process centrally. Estimated spending on US workforce-development programs for those not going to four-year colleges—everything from federal and state jobs programs, workforce training and certifications, community college, and employer training—is at least $300 billion a year. 2 2. Anthony P. Carnevale, Artem Gulish, and Jeff Strohl, College is just the beginning: Employers’ role in the $1.1 trillion postsecondary education and training system (PDF–482KB), Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, 2015. Most programs, however, are deployed in isolation and are not integrated with other services deployed by other entities. For example, a common scenario is that responsibility lies in different places: job training lies with the state’s workforce department, child care and food assistance lies with the social services, and mentorship support lies with a local philanthropy or not for profit. All these components are essential to the learner’s success in completing the training, finding a job, and then succeeding at it. Such tight complementarity of service delivery to learners, however, rarely occurs.

State governments can deploy three strategies to ensure effective use of resources. First, have a clear view of all funding and efforts available for target learner segments and professions in a given location, and coordinate these to deliver holistic services to learners. Second, establish a set of outcomes and performance-management processes in which learner employment within 30 days of program completion, retention on the job, and income increases lie at the heart. Finally, ensure the provision of human, technology, and data-analytics capacity for program delivery that supports learners.

State and local public agencies want to help their citizens succeed. To do so, one priority is to better use the considerable resources that are available, by coordinating the mishmash of funding that now flows through numerous departments and agencies. A second is to improve job outcomes for program participants and employers in the WIOA context. A third is to do so on a large scale and at reasonable cost. There are proven ways to do this that benefit individual workers, companies, and the economy as a whole. By investing in talent in this way, governments and businesses will also be reinvesting in the American dream.

Martha Laboissiere is a senior expert in McKinsey’s San Francisco office, and Mona Mourshed is a senior partner in the Washington, DC, office.

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Workforce Education

A New Roadmap

by William B. Bonvillian and Sanjay E. Sarma

ISBN: 9780262044882

Pub date: February 2, 2021

• Publisher: The MIT Press

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A roadmap for how we can rebuild America's working class by transforming workforce education and training.

The American dream promised that if you worked hard, you could move up, with well-paying working-class jobs providing a gateway to an ever-growing middle class. Today, however, we have increasing inequality, not economic convergence. Technological advances are putting quality jobs out of reach for workers who lack the proper skills and training. In Workforce Education , William Bonvillian and Sanjay Sarma offer a roadmap for rebuilding America's working class. They argue that we need to train more workers more quickly, and they describe innovative methods of workforce education that are being developed across the country.

It's not just that we need a pipeline of skilled workers for future jobs; we need to give workers the skills they need now. Focusing on manufacturing, healthcare, and retail sectors, Bonvillian and Sarma investigate programs that reimagine workforce education, from short intensive courses that offer certification to a new model for apprenticeships. They examine the roles of community colleges, employers, governments, and universities in workforce education, and describe new education technologies that can deliver training to workers. We can't tackle inequality unless we equip our workers for twenty-first-century jobs.

William B. Bonvillian is Lecturer at MIT and Senior Director for Special Projects at MIT's Office of Digital Learning. He is the coauthor of five books on innovation policy. He was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is a member of the Babbage Forum on industrial innovation policy at Cambridge University and the Polaris Advisory Council for the GAO's science and technology policy program, and was previously Chair of the standing Committee on Science and Engineering Policy at the AAAS.

Sanjay E. Sarma is Fred Fort Flowers and Daniel Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where he is also Vice President for Open Learning. He is the coauthor of The Inversion Factor (MIT Press) and Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn .

“Bonvillian and Sarma tackle one of the toughest, and most important problems facing the United States. Their survey of today's decentralized, disconnected 'system' of workforce education is often a tour of disappointments and shortcomings but it also takes us to programs that work and that might lend themselves to replication under committed national leadership. The authors offer no single silver bullet, but a raft of tools and principles for business, government, and educators to follow.” Robert Siegel, former host of NPR's All Things Considered

“Bonvillian and Sarma have given us a thought-provoking assessment of the state of workforce preparation and a roadmap for restoring productivity to the American workforce. They cite innovative examples that, if scaled, offer opportunities for workers, benefits for employers, and advancement for the broader society. This book should be read.” Peter McPherson, President of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities

“Work in America is changing, and the current health and economic crises are accelerating and deepening those changes. Education has and will be the key connector between individuals and the world of work. Bonvillian and Sarma have written a careful, nuanced, and detailed analysis of both the current state of workforce education and its potential, illustrated by real examples and propelled by genuine optimism. Workforce Education is a needed and valuable contribution for policymakers, employers, and educators alike.” Ted Mitchell, President of the American Council on Education

“Bonvillian and Sarma present an alarming problem statement backed by a rich evidence base of data. Their presentation of a compelling set of innovative strategies and policy recommendations at the institutional, state, and federal levels, offers a new vision, or roadmap, to a more equitable prosperity for our country.” Mark Mitsui, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Colleges, US Department of Education

Bonvillian and Sarma make a clear and convincing case for the necessity and potential of this new path. Their work will appeal to a broad readership, particularly those interested in policy change for social good. Library Journal, STARRED Review

"The economic, social and demographic shifts summarized in the early chapters of Workforce Education are breathtaking, being so economically and thoughtfully laid out. This is the best exposition I have seen of the employment-unemployment-underemployment trends in one place." Gordon Freeman Workforce Monitor

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Welcome to Workforce Education at North

We are here to answer your questions about Workforce Education tuition assistance funding and guide you through our application process. Tuition assistance is money that Workforce Education pays directly to the college to cover the cost of tuition and fees. Workforce Education funding may also include a book voucher to be used at the college bookstore to cover the cost of your required textbooks. Workforce Education tuition assistance is money that you do not pay back.

The expandable section below provides additional information about Workforce Education eligible academic program pathways and how to apply for Workforce Education funding.

• Workforce Education is tuition assistance, which is money paid directly to the college to cover the cost of tuition, fees and may also pay for required textbooks when funding is available.
• Basic Food Employment & Training (BFET)
• Opportunity Grant
• Worker Retraining
• Pre-College/Basic and Transitional Studies (Adult Basic Education/ABE, General Educational Development/GED, and English as Second Language/ESL)
• Career Training Certificates and Degrees
• Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) Degrees * *BAS Degrees are only eligible for  Worker Retraining funding

Workforce Education cannot fund direct transfer degrees or undecided programs. Meet with an academic advisor or do some self-guided exploration by reviewing the resources listed on Career Exploration document and  How Many Credits Should I Take?  to help you decide on an academic program pathway.

• Take the Start Next Quarter survey to check your funding eligibility; the survey is not an application for funding.
• If eligible for funding, you should receive a Results page that lists the funding program(s) for which you may qualify. Click the ‘GO’ button to be directed to the Attend a Workshop page.
• On the Attend a Workshop page, enter your contact information and then click the ‘GO’ button to be directed to the Get in Touch page.
• The Get in Touch page includes information for the Workforce Education Application and link; click the application link and complete the Workforce Education Application.

Please consider attending our Zoom drop-in hours. More information including the schedule and Zoom links are on our Contact Workforce Education page, select “Virtual Assistance via Zoom.”

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U.s. secretary of commerce gina raimondo announces order to harness potential of america’s workforce, releases doc workforce policy agenda, office of public affairs.

Raimondo DAO unites the Department’s workforce equities across bureaus to empower workers with education and technical skills necessary to thrive in our increasingly tech-driven economy

Today, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo announced a Department Administrative Order (DAO) to establish a Department of Commerce workforce policy agenda focused on preparing workers with the education and skills necessary to accelerate the development and deployment of critical and emerging technologies, which are critical to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. The DAO frames a Commerce approach to workforce investments that is employer-led, worker-centric, and fully integrated into the Department’s historic work through the Biden-Harris Investing in America agenda.  

“America is the most competitive country in the world, and that’s because of the strength of our workforce. But if we want to stay ahead, we need to ensure we are empowering our workers with the skills they need to secure the good-paying jobs we’re creating under President Biden’s Investing in America agenda,” said Secretary Raimondo . “The diversity of our workforce is our greatest asset, and to make our country even more competitive, we can’t have any Americans stuck in the margins of our economy. The order I’m announcing today highlights how the Department of Commerce is investing more than $1.6 billion in our workforce and the support services needed to upskill and connect workers with family sustaining jobs in their communities in key industries that will keep the United States at the forefront of our 21st-century economy.” 

The DAO cements two sets of principles that have guided the Department’s workforce development programs. First, the DAO establishes Principles for Workforce Investments. These reflect the employer-led, worker-centric approach to the Department’s workforce development programs as first developed under the Good Jobs Challenge and are guiding workforce program development across the Department.  

Second, through the Good Jobs Principles , the DAO helps ensure the Department’s programs support the creation of goods jobs as a building block for equitable economic growth.  Developed jointly with the Department of Labor, the Good Jobs Principles provide a framework for workers, businesses, labor unions, advocates, researchers, state and local governments, and Federal agencies for a shared vision of job quality.  

The DAO sets as departmental policy that economic development and workforce development are inextricably linked. Therefore, the Departmental should prioritize the expansion, creation, and coordination of regional clusters in tandem with modern workforce development strategies.  

The DAO lays out the Department’s three-part approach to its meet employers’ need for talent and to connect Americans to good jobs:  

• Invest in employer-driven education and training systems; 
• Foster transformative employer practices, and;  
• Produce timely data to help Americans develop and advance.  

Finally, the DAO establishes the Commerce Workforce Council to develop and implement the Department’s workforce policy, programs, and initiatives and coordinate with other federal agencies. The DAO charges the council with conducting an annual inventory of programs, funding, and personnel; setting metrics and goals on the aggregate outcomes of the Department’s programs; and publishing an annual report on its activities. 

For more information on this Department Administrative Order, it can be read in full here .  

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Building the Next Generation of Teachers Through Apprenticeship

Registered Apprenticeship is an effective "earn and learn" model with a long history of establishing career pathways in growing industries by providing structured, paid, on-the-job learning experiences with a mentor combined with job-related technical instruction that leads to a nationally recognized credential. To learn more about Registered Apprenticeships, visit www.apprenticeship.gov .

Building on the Biden administration’s Good Jobs Initiative, we’re expanding Registered Apprenticeships for educators and investing in quality teacher preparation programs. These efforts started with a joint effort, leadership, and call to action from our departments through a Dear Colleague Letter for education and workforce leaders to address educator shortages, and investments to support developing, expanding and scaling high-quality and affordable pathways into teaching. This call to action aims to ensure teachers have access to increased pay and better working conditions across the early childhood, K-12 and higher education workforce.  

The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration has continued to partner with the Department of Education to make significant investments to develop and scale teacher apprenticeship programs, including: 

We also recently announced the availability of nearly $200 million to support Registered Apprenticeship expansion, prioritizing projects that support the Investing in America agenda by increasing access to Registered Apprenticeships in high-demand sectors and occupations, including K-12 teacher occupations. Strategies to use Registered Apprenticeship to train a next generation of teachers continue to expand, with 37 states and territories now providing K-12 teacher apprenticeship programs, up from just two states in 2022. Today, over 100 K-12 teacher Registered Apprenticeship programs have been registered and over 3,000 K-12 teacher apprentices have been trained. That’s a lot of progress made in just two years! And this administration is committed to ensuring that progress continues. 

To support raising awareness around K-12 teacher Registered Apprenticeships, ETA industry intermediary partner RTI International published a Profile in Educator Registered Apprenticeship Programs report, which explores different program design models, varying target populations, modernized onramps to successful teacher pathways, innovative funding models, and opportunities for degree attainment. 

The report is the first in a series, which ETA will release in partnership with RTI to explore various strategies to expand the use of Registered Apprenticeship to train America’s educators. K-12 teacher Registered Apprenticeship programs will continue to play a key role in increasing pathways to rewarding careers in the education sector, filling vacant positions with high-quality, well-trained teachers, and a focus on diversifying the workforce.  For additional information on any of these programs, please visit Apprenticeship.gov.

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WVU boosts nursing education to meet workforce demands with $2.6M grant from Bedford Falls Foundation

Thursday, May 16, 2024

The WVU School of Nursing is expanding educational opportunities with $2.6 million in support from the Bedford Falls Foundation to help address state and national workforce challenges. (WVU Photo)

The West Virginia University School of Nursing is boosting nursing education opportunities with a $2.6 million grant from the Bedford Falls Foundation to address workforce challenges within the Mountain State and across the nation.

The grant funds support coordinated philanthropic efforts by Bedford Falls founders William “Bill” Conway and his late wife, Joanne Barkett Conway, to increase the nursing workforce throughout the eastern United States.

The WVU School of Nursing is working to educate more nurses amid a nationwide shortage caused by changing demographics, greater demand for health care, a rise in retirements and other factors. The Bedford Falls grant to WVU will provide student scholarships and faculty support for four programs aimed at producing well-trained nurses to meet health care needs in West Virginia and beyond.

“Nurses play a vital role in the health care team and in our state,” Dr. Clay Marsh , chancellor and executive dean for WVU Health Sciences , said. “This grant allows us to focus on our land-grant mission of serving the people of West Virginia and providing top-tier training to our students.”

The grant funding will help WVU expand two existing degree programs to new sites. Later this year, the Licensed Practical Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing program — the only one of its kind in the state of West Virginia — will be offered at the WVU Keyser Campus, simultaneously boosting the number of BSN-educated nurses in the state and creating opportunities for practical nurses to advance their careers. Additionally, the WVU School of Nursing is in the planning stage of offering its Accelerated BSN program at a new campus location in the state’s Eastern Panhandle.

The grant will also bolster an international nursing program with Arellano University , a private university in the Philippines that previously partnered with the now-closed Alderson Broaddus University in West Virginia. Program participants will complete their first three years of BSN education at Arellano University and transfer to WVU for their final year. The Bedford Falls grant will provide scholarships to cover the difference in tuition cost for students during their year at WVU, as well as faculty support.

The WVU Health System and other area health care providers have ample employment opportunities to offer these Conway Scholars when they graduate.

Finally, the grant will support the existing PhD program in Morgantown, significantly expanding available scholarship support for future nursing educators. Following graduation, Conway Scholars who receive a PhD will be required to teach for three years at a school within the region. Many are expected to continue teaching in the region thereafter, filling a need for PhD-educated faculty to replace retirees in the coming years.

“This substantial investment from the Bedford Falls Foundation will make a lasting impact for our students and faculty, as well as for the expansion of our programs,” said Tara Hulsey , dean and E. Jane Martin Endowed Professor. “The Conways have created a legacy of support for nursing education and the WVU School of Nursing is honored to be among its beneficiaries.” 

The Bedford Falls Foundation supports a variety of charitable causes, with a particular focus on nursing education. The Conways’ philanthropy in that area was inspired by a conversation Joanne had with a waitress about her struggle to afford a nursing degree and, over the last 11 years, the couple’s generosity has supported nursing education at 17 universities.

“With a critical nursing shortage nationwide, we are thrilled to be expanding our geography to include West Virginia,” Bill Conway said. “We look forward to this new partnership with WVU and to creating more nurses for a region that needs them.”

The Bedford Falls Foundation grant was awarded through the WVU Foundation , the nonprofit organization that receives and administers private donations on behalf of the University, in conjunction with WVU Day of Giving . The 24-hour fundraising event, held March 20, raised $30.4 million from over 8,500 gifts. 

cr/05/16/24

MEDIA CONTACT: Cassie Rice Senior Communications Specialist WVU Foundation 304-554-0217; [email protected]

Call 1-855-WVU-NEWS for the latest West Virginia University news and information from WVUToday .  

Opportunity to Participate in Regional Design Sessions for the Career Education Master Plan

Workforce Services Information Notice                                                          

Issued: February 16, 2024

In collaboration with employers, labor, and community partners, the leaders of California’s education and workforce agencies are formulating ideas to enhance equitable access to meaningful, well-paying employment. Input is being sought to pinpoint specific policy and practice changes needed to broaden opportunities for Californians, which will result in a new Master Plan for Career Education.

In collaboration with regional leadership, the Governor’s Office will host a total of seven interactive design sessions all of which will be one day long. These sessions aim to facilitate the sharing of ideas on:

• Creating state and regional coordinating bodies that make it easier to access information, funding, and support.
• Aligning K-12, postsecondary, and workforce training opportunities so it is easier to build skills in a variety of settings.
• Creating incentives and improving coordination so that more people can participate in hands-on learning.
• Making it easier to access public benefits so that learners can afford to participate in education and training.

Locations and Dates of Regional Design Sessions

The design sessions are structured to allow participants to identify how daily experiences could be enhanced by state and regional policies, with a focus on various stakeholders such as those in K-12 education, adult schools, colleges, workforce training providers, employers, labor representatives, community-based organizations, and more.

To attend, please visit https://careereducation.gov.ca.gov/master-plan-engage/ . Due to limited seating, potential participants are requested to fill out an interest form located on the site. Submissions will undergo review to ensure representation from a diverse array of stakeholders. For those unable to attend, contributions can be made by submitting written recommendations or requesting a meeting with a representative from the Governor's Office.

/s/KIMBERLEE MEYER, Chief Central Office Workforce Services Division

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