As we turn to 2023, here's a look back at the most-read Jobs for the Future (JFF) Points of View from 2022

The world of work certainly had its share of newsworthy moments in 2022. Last year at Jobs for the Future (JFF) , we covered a few of the most pressing issues at the intersection of education and the workforce, including topics ranging from skills-based hiring to quality jobs.?

But I was curious to see what readers of our site found to be the most interesting points of view, so I looked at our site traffic over the last 12 months to see which points of view seemed to resonate most with jff.org website visitors based on popularity. While we can't always boil down impact or importance to crass measures like website visitors, it can be a fun and intriguing way to gauge which content and themes are top of mind for our readers, and it gives us a tool to figure out how we can continue to make our content relevant to those interested in what JFF has to say.

So, with that in mind, here are our most-read points of view from last year based on our site traffic:

10) Nearing 40, JFF is Growing and We're Positioning Ourselves for the Future (Published October 24, 2022, by Maria Flynn )

As we plan to celebrate Jobs for the Future’s 40th anniversary in 2023, I’ve been reflecting on how far we’ve come as an organization. During my nearly six years as CEO, JFF has grown significantly—adding multiple new levers for driving equitable economic advancement for all, including our Corporate Action Platform, JFFLabs, and our impact investing arm, JFF Ventures, as well as?Horizons,?our annual summit and year-round content platform. But while we’re looking back to mark this milestone, we’re also forging ahead and planning for the impact JFF strives to make in the years ahead.

That’s why I’m so excited to share that JFF is organizing to enable us to scale our effort and our impact while bringing more clarity to our unique contributions as leaders in the field.?

9) Apprenticeship Shaped My Post-Prison Life -- Employers Will Benefit from Others Like Me (Published April 28, 2022, by Joshua Johnson )

By working together to offer Registered Apprenticeship programs to men and women who are currently or formerly incarcerated, prisons and employers can give people with criminal records the opportunity for a fresh start while building a pipeline of motivated, dedicated employees.

Many reentry programs prepare people to work when they exit prison, but their job prospects usually are low-wage,?static jobs?that do not lead to economic advancement.?Apprenticeship?is an earn-and-learn training model that builds in-demand skills and provides a clear pathway to a good job with family-supporting wages, opportunities for career advancement, and a high chance of economic mobility. On average, a worker?earns $72,000?per year upon completing a Registered Apprenticeship program. And 92 percent of apprentices stay with their employer after the apprenticeship ends.

8) JFF Summer Internship Year 2: Building a Pathway to the Future of Work (Published May 31, 2022, by Emmanuel Manu )

After a highly successful pilot in which 17 interns spent 11 weeks working on key projects across JFF, we’re ready to do it again. And as we kick off Year 2, we’re excited to report that the JFF summer internship program is growing: This year, 26 young people will be joining teams that manage critical internal operations, such as finance, development, and human resources, and engage with external stakeholders in initiatives throughout the work and learn ecosystem.

This year’s program continues to be guided by our core JFF values, which compel us to provide a diverse group of young people from across the country with practical on-the-job experience along with learning and skill-building opportunities that will help them prepare for the future of work. We apply rigor and intentionality to our hiring and recruitment efforts, employ best practices, and use data to identify ways to innovate and improve the program. Ultimately, we hope the JFF summer internship will become an ongoing initiative that creates growth and learning experiences for both the interns and our full-time employees—and helps us build a strong talent pipeline that we’ll be able to tap well into the future.

7) New JFF Research Sheds Light on the Equity Impact of ISAs (Published on April 14, 2022, by Ethan Pollack and Felicia Sullivan, Ph.D. )

In today’s rapidly changing economy, workers can’t advance without continually acquiring new skills, but high tuition costs and the prospect of incurring?burdensome debt?put education and training opportunities out of reach for millions of people. Moreover, there’s no assurance that all education and training programs offer high-quality instruction, and many programs fail to deliver positive?returns on students’ investments.

At Jobs for the Future (JFF), we recognize that there’s an urgent need to reimagine the way postsecondary education and training is financed, and through our Financing the Future (FTF) initiative, we have started to identify several innovative new approaches. Of those,?income share agreements?(ISA) represent one of the more promising options.

6) JFF Answers the White House Call for Workforce Development (Published July 25, 2022, by David Soo )

JFF is excited to meet this moment and join the White House’s?Talent Pipeline Challenge.?The Challenge, launched in June, aims to galvanize leaders from the public, private, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors to develop talent in key fields that create our country’s infrastructure. The call-to-action focuses on supporting equitable workforce development in areas such as broadband, construction, and electrification (electric vehicle charging infrastructure and battery manufacturing).

Investing in these fields can not only ensure a more robust supply chain, but also provide equitable opportunities for workers across the nation.

5) We Can't Fix Our Labor Market Without Ensuring Reproductive Rights (Published May 11, 2022, by Maria Flynn )?

Jobs for the Future (JFF) is equally committed to supporting our employees in accessing the resources they need to succeed. As our employee base grows geographically, we want to ensure that everyone at JFF has access to safe and reliable health care and reproductive services. As a result, we are expanding our benefits to enable care for those who seek it, including designing a solution to reimburse employees for travel expenses associated with health care services. We will ensure that any use of this benefit guarantees privacy and safety.

4) Together We Can Help Employers Create Quality Jobs (Published September 1, 2022, by Tameshia Bridges Mansfield )

As our Good Jobs Framework highlights, a living wage is essential to worker well-being. While 32 percent of all U.S. workers earn less than $15 an hour, close to half of Black (47 percent) and Latinx workers (46 percent) earn that little. The rate is far lower for white workers (26 percent).

And yet a living wage is just one part of what makes a quality job.

3) The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2022 Increases Resources, Advances Equity, and Modernizes Our Systems (Published on April 6, 2022, by Mary Claggett)

JFF celebrates the bill’s intentional focus on equity. The bill prioritizes services under WIOA’s Adult program for individuals facing barriers to employment, including for reasons related to race or ethnicity, and promotes changes in the composition of workforce boards to be reflective of the communities they serve. It also includes timely and important language changes related to people with criminal records that better reflect how that community defines itself. The bill calls for enhanced services for these populations and stresses the need for workforce leaders and staff to participate in high-quality professional development for providing more equitable access and delivery of services. It also attempts to get better data on the performance of these populations in WIOA programs, to better understand and address persisting gaps in outcomes. H.R. 7309 also encourages the provision of evidence-based strategies such as career pathways and more robust supportive services that are aligned to individuals’ needs.

2) Skills-Based Hiring Requires Skills-First Learning (Published on April 20, 2022, by Stacey Clawson and Ashley Bliss Lima )

Postsecondary institutions and their employer partners must ensure that these learner populations have opportunities to engage in education that prioritizes and showcases their skills, accelerating them toward jobs and careers they can perform regardless of background or degree.

With that in mind, Jobs for the Future (JFF) is introducing a model we call Skills-First Learning, an approach to learning and credentialing that focuses on what people know and what they can do, not on the number of years they have spent in classrooms. Skills-First Learning can deliver equitable economic advancement for all.

1) Bringing Our Future into Focus (Published on January 20, 2022, by Maria Flynn )

While we have long been a?conduit?for change—connecting disparate systems, ideas, and stakeholders—the time has come for us to be a powerful?catalyst?for change by accelerating innovation to reimagine the future of work and learning.

The problems that our education and workforce systems are striving to tackle are more complex than ever before. But the same dynamics that drive these complexities (such as advancements in technology, shifting consumer expectations, and blurring of silos) also create possible solutions. JFF is embracing these complexities in our efforts to create equitable options in workforce and education, and we’re leveraging this perspective to refine JFF’s work around five focus areas that align all we do to transform the 21st-century education and workforce marketplace.

What's in store for 2023??

Follow Jobs for the Future (JFF) on LinkedIn to stay up to date on the latest insights from JFF, and stay tuned for this year's Horizons annual summit where we'll explore additional themes, including investing in human capital, activating equity, redesigning systems, and the next frontier of learning and work.?