Search

In its effort to support a more diverse tech talent pipeline in the state, the Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP), in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, has outlined a plan to boost the tech workforce in the state and help diverse populations’ access pathways into IT. DPP, the nonprofit state economic development agency in Delaware, completed its work on a strategic plan to achieve those goals, that it says is dependent on the state’s ability to align state polices and resources to accelerate the impact of the IT talent strategy.

Last month, Gov. Laura Kelly (D), alongside former state governors Mike Hayden (R) and John Carlin (D), and the Lt. Gov. and Secretary of Commerce David Toland, announced “Framework for Growth”, the state’s first economic development plan in over 30 years. The plan, which was a year in the making, is a collaborative effort that involves input from over 2,000 Kansans, the staff of the Department of Commerce, and two former governors.

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) is building a program to create new career pathways for low-income rural students. Through a partnership with the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development at Purdue University, the program will address the needs of rural employers by creating a model to identify rural workforce needs, developing stakeholder partnerships, mapping workforce pathways, recruiting and supporting low-income rural learners, and building entrepreneurship and leadership skills. In a press release, APLU noted that the program will work to help low-income rural students looking for their first career options while helping non-traditional working-learners, such as displaced workers.

In a year that has seen the economy drop off a cliff, unemployment skyrocket and racial discrimination shock the consciousness of a nation, one might think all hope is lost. But there are those who are working to take this moment in time and re-emerge on the other side a stronger, more inclusive nation. As many workers face the prospect of a job that may never return, Americans in a more comfortable position who have been able to shift their work to remote locations have applauded the work of those left on the front lines during the current pandemic. And a realization that the economy wasn’t always working for all, and the American dream was becoming more of a nightmare for large segments of the population, is coalescing into action for better jobs and greater inclusion.

This week, an alliance of workforce partners has begun to release a suite of tools designed to help those who have worked to build their skills through experience, but lack a four-year degree. A recent report reveals how those who have worked to build their skill set have nonetheless experienced stagnant or downward wage trajectories. Turning that tide to a more positive outcome is the driving force behind many in the workforce development field. In this story we look at the efforts of Opportunity@Work and the Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, both of which are part of Markle’s initiative known as Rework America Alliance.

In an effort to help Alabamians advance into higher-paying careers and understand how higher income from new careers can establish a path toward self-sufficiency, the state of Alabama and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta have partnered to launch a new career tool. The Dashboard for Alabamians to Visualize Income Determinations (DAVID) is designed to help low-income workers fearful of the benefits cliff (the sudden loss of public assistance as income increases) attain economic self-sufficiency as they plan for future career development. Gov. Kay Ivey said in a release that the tool will help Alabama reach its attainment goal of adding 500,000 credentialed workers to the workforce by 2025.

After more than a year of research and facing greater disruption to the workforce than imagined at the outset, the National Governors Association (NGA) has released a guide for governors and state policymakers to help build a technologically resilient workforce. Written before the COVID-19 outbreak, the authors of the report attest that trends previously identified will only accelerate, and thus there is even greater urgency for policy transformations that should be implemented as part of a system wide, resilient education and workforce development agenda.

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is recommending a set of bold actions to help ensure continued American leadership in Industries of the Future (IotF), comprising artificial intelligence (AI), quantum information science (QIS), advanced manufacturing, advanced communications, and biotechnology. The three pillars underpinning these actions are: enhancing multi-sector engagement in research and innovation; creating a new institute structure that integrates one or more of the IotF areas and spans discovery research to product development; and ensuring the availability of a qualified, diverse IotF workforce.

Frontline workers in Michigan who don’t have a degree may find a tuition-free pathway to college or a technical certificate, in the same manner as the G.I. Bill following World War II, while others states are also pursuing options for increased educational opportunities for workers who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.

STEM and the American Workforce, a new report backed mostly by science associations, points to STEM jobs as one-third of direct employment, two-thirds of total employment, and 69 percent of America’s GDP. The authors highlight that 60 percent of STEM jobs are filled by people without bachelor’s degrees. Those are eye-popping numbers until one starts to dig into what the report considers a STEM job, which were decided on a case-by-case basis according to the occupation’s sector and educational requirements. This is not the only recent STEM employment study to take an expansive view of the field. Earlier this year, the Idaho STEM Action Center reported that the number of unfilled STEM jobs in the state had doubled, to 7,633, in just three years. Digging into the state labor agency’s data indicates that a large portion of these openings are in healthcare, with the plurality of openings seeking registered nurses.

More states are employing different efforts to boost their workforce and to seek the best solutions to workforce dilemmas. The National Governors Association (NGA) recognized that governors are exploring ways to guide development and expansion of youth apprenticeship programs and has issued a white paper that explores three strategies governors can use to expand on such programs. In a separate effort, the National Skills Coalition has selected coalitions from 10 new states to join SkillSPAN, a national network of state coalitions expanding access to skills training through state policy changes that support all workers.

Students and tech employers stand to benefit from a new initiative in Virginia that grew out of the Commonwealth’s proposal to Amazon, which is building its second headquarters in Northern Virginia. Last week, Gov. Ralph Northam announced that Virginia will invest in their tech talent pipeline to produce 31,000 new computer science graduates over 20 years.

If Americans are going to build better careers and share prosperity as technological changes occur, the U.S. will have to implement more comprehensive policies, according to an MIT task force’s preliminary report titled The Work of the Future: Shaping Technology and Institutions. The task force, convened in spring 2018, was motivated by the paradox that despite a decade of low unemployment and rising prosperity in the U.S., there is a pessimism surrounding technology and work, which it says is “a reflection of a decades-long disconnect between rising productivity and stagnant incomes for the majority of workers.”