Workforce Monitor Weekly - Jan. 30, 2022 - Augmented Workforce, 4 New Books, Micro-Credentials in Tempe

This recently published World Economic Forum (WEF) white paper on the implementation of augmentation technologies in manufacturing was prepared in collaboration with Cambridge University.

Four more books about workforce development equity we recently discovered, listed in order of publication date.

It’s encouraging to see this type of cooperation, particularly as it relates to meeting skills and program needs versus educating students with no alignment for the local employers’ needs.

This report shows there’s a massive opportunity for our nation’s more than 1,000 community colleges to help create pathways into well-paying jobs for job seekers, particularly for adults of color. Many community colleges partner with construction companies, labor unions, and other stakeholders to offer high-quality training in critical infrastructure occupations. The new jobs created by federal investments will only increase the need for training.

High-quality career and technical education (CTE) programs represent an effective way to provide young adults with an educational experience that prepares them for both college and career success. But not all CTE programs provide accessible pathways to a bounty of educational options without dead ends. To address the false dichotomy—college versus job preparation—in our nation’s public education system, JFF offers practitioner-informed policy considerations, rooted in a commitment to equity, that federal and state officials can use as a guide to strengthen CTE college and career pathways for today’s youth.

High-quality non-degree workforce programs at community colleges, including both credit-bearing and non-credit programs, play a crucial role in equipping low-income and marginalized workers and learners with the skills and credentials they need to secure quality jobs and careers in a variety of occupations. Financing these programs can be a challenge for many colleges. Under the hospices of its New Models for Career Preparation project, The Center on Education and Labor at New America (CELNA), with support from Lumina Foundation, commissioned Non-Profit Finance Fund to undertake a study examining innovative financing approaches. This report presents the findings from the study.

Last year, the Center on Education & Labor at New America partnered with the Swiss university ETH Zürich to administer the 2021 Employer Training Survey (ETS). The ETS explored the characteristics of American employer-provided training; businesses’ reasons for providing training; and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on training programs. The resulting dataset included information about the types of program offered by each employer—apprenticeship, on-the-job training, professional development, internship, or other training programs—as well as the size, industry, and sector (public, private, or nonprofit) of the respondent organizations.

The self-proclaimed “policy nerds” at WCET and WCET/SAN began looking forward to 2022, and we started to marvel at all the policy issues for digital learning in higher education that will be in play this year. Some significant changes for online and distance learning with significant implications for student consumer protection are on the horizon.

America’s lowest earners are also its most essential workers: truck drivers, packers and shippers, grocery clerks, servers, healthcare assistants, housekeepers, and janitors. Despite working long hours in difficult jobs, many of these workers are trapped in positions with low wages and little or no prospects for advancement. Most employers believe they have policies in place to help these workers. However, a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. low-wage workers and a matching survey of 1,150 U.S. business leaders shows that implementation is poor.

As we approach the midpoint of another pandemic school year, we all recognize that the higher education we knew won’t return. The past two years have been an inflection point, where the much-discussed and debated transformation of higher education has accelerated and grown more widespread.

Here we summarize an American Council on Education (ACE) report published in 2016 that is still prescient today. “Communicating the Value of Competencies” (herein referred to as CVC) is a companion piece to another prescient ACE report published in 2016, titled “Quality Dimensions for Connected Credentials.”