The Future of Workforce Preparation

I didn’t really “get” what the CEA’s report on The Jobs of the Future was all about. It basically seemed to be saying what we already know—job growth will be largely concentrated in meds and eds, health care and education. And also that college graduates will be better off than those relying on high school diplomas. But Micah Kordsmeier explains that the important part is the ideas for “unlocking the limited success of job training and re-training programs.”

That makes sense! America does a hodgepodge of training and retraining initiatives under the Workforce Investment Act and “[r]esearch suggests that WIA participants benefit from the program, on average, although quality is uneven.” In essence, if we can build on the things that work and cut out the underperforming programs, we’d be in much better shape. They also make the key point that the best way to make sure that “post-high school” people have the skills they need is to make sure that they actually graduate high school with a solid basis of knowledge. As the CEA puts it “the most important ‘post-high school’ education and training reform is a strong early childhood and elementary and secondary education system.” The education elements of the Obama agenda haven’t gotten much attention yet, but the Teacher Incentive Fund boost cleared a key subcommittee mostly intact earlier this week and union leader Randi Weingarten put out a supportive statement yesterday about CAP’s work on incentive pay. So the wheels are turning.