Over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, there are hints of optimism as more people gain access to vaccines and the federal government injects more stimulus money into the economy. Yet, the outlook for workers remains mixed. The crisis has exacerbated existing inequities, and recent jobs gains reflect persistent disparities based on race, gender, age, and educational attainment.
Coming out of the crisis, providing more workers with pathways to economic stability will depend in large part on forging stronger connections between education and economic opportunity. America’s fragmented systems of education and training have too often reinforced barriers between working and learning, rather than bridging the worlds of education and employment. This is an opportune moment to re-evaluate the country’s fundamental approach to human capital development.
To understand the models and theories of change among training organizations, our research team at Harvard’s interdisciplinary Project on Workforce analyzed 316 applications to the Postsecondary Innovation for Equity initiative. The grant competition, launched by venture philanthropy New Profit, awarded $100,000 to social entrepreneurs who help young people from low-income communities launch promising careers. The applications provide an inside look at the interplay among short-term training providers, employers, colleges, and high schools.
"Policymakers, employers, and educators must prioritize and scale programs that integrate work and learning."
We found that the education-and-employment connection remains too tenuous in America. To create more pathways to upward mobility in the post-COVID recovery, policymakers, employers, and educators must prioritize and scale programs that integrate work and learning. Our new white paper Working to Learn: Despite a growing set of innovators, America struggles to connect education and career explores several important trends from our analysis:
Few programs strive for college and employment. Though organizations in the dataset consider themselves innovators in combining postsecondary credentials and work experience, they split almost evenly between those focused on college matriculation and those offering career-focused models. Only 16 percent of applicants prioritize relationships with both educational institutions and employers. Moreover, few organizations measure their success in terms of both educational attainment and labor market outcomes. For example, only 33 percent of the organizations tracking college-related outcomes also prioritize employment outcomes.
Situated learning opportunities remain scarce. Prior research has demonstrated that skills acquired in a setting similar to the one in which they will be applied are much more durable. Yet relatively few organizations provide learning opportunities that closely resemble the realities of the workplace. Only 25 percent of applicants offer apprenticeships, internships, or work-based learning. That figure pales in comparison to other OECD countries like Germany or Switzerland, where 40-70 percent of students split their time between traditional school settings and learning in a workplace.
Technical and soft skills rarely go hand in hand. The future of work, and especially good-paying jobs, will require a combination of foundational, transferable soft skills and job-specific technical skills. However, we found that only 9 percent of organizations in the dataset prioritize both types of skills. A focus on short-term job placement should not come at the expense of developing capacities, like critical reasoning, that prepare learners for long-run success in careers. Work-based learning, especially when combined with mentorship, can foster both skill sets.
Employer relationships tend to be lacking. Perhaps the most troubling finding in our research was that only 35 percent of applicants report working directly with employers. The most effective programs in the social science literature feature strong employer relationships. Organizations in our dataset that work with employers grow faster than their peers in the dataset. This offers some promise for the future. But, given the starkness of the COVID re-employment challenge, it will be more critical than ever to foster linkages between education providers and organizations that are hiring.
Setting an agenda for impact
While many of these challenges are not new, the data strengthens the case for action. Indeed, the crisis has renewed pressure on the US to develop new models and expand existing pathways that can open doors for people most affected by the downturn. They include workers without bachelor’s degrees, workers of color, young workers, working mothers, and workers in the industries most affected by COVID, like retail and hospitality.
As we look toward a post-pandemic recovery, it will be incumbent upon policymakers, business leaders, and educators to ensure those groups are not left behind. The American Jobs Plan promotes significant new investments in training. Policymakers and educators should seize the opportunity to use the funding for programs that braid education with work experience, especially those where people can learn and earn while completing their high school diploma or college degree.
Incentives and measurement will also play an important role in understanding the success of training efforts. If college-focused programs aspire to support employment outcomes, labor market outcomes must become a key metric of success. These lessons should hold true for private funders in philanthropy as well.
"We expect to see greater opportunities for workers with transferable, soft skills in the wake of growing automation."
Employers, too, will have a critical role to play in creating the pathways that will help workers affected by COVID withstand future economic shocks. The private sector spends the largest share of training dollars dedicated to adults.
Policymakers should support programs that actively encourage employers to invest in talent pipelines. CareerWise, founded in Colorado but now expanding to Indiana, New York City, and Washington, DC, provides a replicable model for employers to engage high school students in youth apprenticeships. And the growth of “education as a benefit” models like Guild Education provides good evidence for the potential for employers to integrate postsecondary access more directly into their human capital strategies. Efforts like the Investing in American Workers Act, which would revise the tax code so companies’ investments in their people are treated the same as investments in physical assets and research, are also a good step forward.
In addition, as more data emerges from this crisis, we expect to see greater opportunities for workers with transferable, soft skills in the wake of growing automation. Employers and educators will need to focus on how they can cultivate those skills in workers and learners alike.
Finally, any systemic solution must address the challenges of market fragmentation. There is no “one-stop shop” for employers and potential employees to find each other, even when labor markets are tight. But as hiring grows, tighter linkages between educational institutions and industry can yield better economic outcomes for workers and higher levels of competitiveness for American employers. Accomplishing that requires permanent, work-based learning programs that support educators’ degree-granting programs and employers’ hiring strategies. Closing the gaps and reducing the frictions between completing one’s education and starting a job offers massive returns for workers, employers, and society at large.
About the Authors
Joseph B. Fuller is a Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. He co-chairs the HBS Project on Managing the Future of Work and the Project on Workforce at Harvard. Rachel Lipson is the Director of the Project on Workforce at Harvard University.
[Image: iStockphoto/Aaron Hawkins]
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