Workforce Solutions Are Always On Our Radar

One Size Doesn't Fit All

The pathway to a good career is not the same for everyone, nor should it be.

A four-year degree, a two-year degree, certification training, paid apprenticeship, and skills learned through experience in the workforce – these are some of the ways to get the skills needed to do a job well.

Finding the right fit is not always easy, especially if you don't know where to find those opportunities.

At WorkingNation, we focus on telling stories about those opportunities, especially ones that are preparing workers and job seekers for the skills needed in the most in-demand jobs today across all industries. We also examine some of the challenges various groups of people face entering the workforce or advancing their careers, and report on some potential solutions.

Here are some of our recent stories:

• WorkingNation and LinkedIn present: AI is changing the way we work: Are you ready?
• Work in Progress podcast: The government needs workers with cybersecurity, AI, and data analytic skills. Here’s what it is doing about it.
• Article: Reimagining West Virginia’s coal country by building on the state’s legacy as an energy provider
• Article: How one major health care hub is addressing a shortage of workers
• Article: A pathway for returning citizens to living-wage trucking industry careers
• Climate and Careers digital magazine: Every job can be a green job
• WorkingNation original video: Workplace realities: Disclosing physical and mental health disabilities

This list barely scratches the surface of all the solutions-based articles, videos, and podcasts you'll find at our website, www.workingnation.org. I invite you to check it out for yourself. And don't forget to bookmark the link!

The WorkingNation Advisory Board

We don’t do this work alone. We have a great Advisory Board made up of dozens of thoughtful and experienced people who have spent the majority of their careers helping build programs and sharing ideas that are guiding workers, job seekers, and learners on pathways to good careers.

We’re grateful that our board members make themselves available whenever we need them to help us help our audience better understand where there are challenges and where there are solutions along that career pathway.

For me, it is always a treat to be able to talk to them in person.

Earlier this month, I had the chance to catch up with a number of them at the ASU+GSV Summit 2024 in San Diego to pick their brains about what they are hearing, seeing, and doing to advance these solutions.

When I spoke with Chike Aguh, senior advisor to the Project on Workforce at Harvard University and former Chief Innovation Officer for the U.S. Department of Labor, he said that one of the most important issues to him, right now, is how we fill the millions of jobs that we need to fill in industries that are crucial to America’s continued competitiveness. ?

“We're going to need new types of training, like using XR and digital tools, and we're going to also need to use old tools like apprenticeships, which are going to be critical for the jobs of the future,” he told me.

“These jobs are not simply based in technology. There are also going to be jobs that, frankly, we've written off for a long time, like welder, electrician, and machinist. These are jobs that are critical for us being competitive in infrastructure, in semiconductors, in green technologies.

"If we can use tools we've always used and use tools that we're developing, we can close the gap between the work that needs to get done and the workers who need work,” Aguh added.

Advisory Board member Gerald Chertavian is the founder and now senior advisor for Year Up, a national program that empowers underserved young adults to enter the economic mainstream.

He said he’s heard a lot of advocacy for skills-first hiring, and now he’d like to see more action. “The movement is only a movement when it impacts a large number of people's lives in a meaningful way."

“The foundation is being created but the real next step involves implementing this important effort and changing the way we hire, support, and advance those who don't have a four-year degree. Stasis is our number one enemy, and it will take sustained leadership to make a real and lasting change,” Chertavian told me when we met up in San Diego.

I am always glad to run into Bridget Burns, CEO of the University Innovation Alliance, and spend some time with her. She said she walked away from the conference feeling hopeful about the future ahead for higher education students.

Those thoughts echoed what she told me during SXSW EDU 2024 in Austin in March: Universities are doing a better job figuring out actions to deal with their greatest challenges.

“I think the public feedback about higher ed is completely understandable. If we would just do what good entrepreneurs do and become obsessed with the consumer, obsessed with listening, that’s how you create great products and services. You actually listen with empathy and try and figure out what people need,” according to Burns.

I also stole a few minutes with the very busy Jason Tyszko, vice president of U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, where he advances policies and programs that preserve America’s competitiveness and enhance the career readiness of youth and adult learners.

Another area of interest for the Foundation is skills-based hiring, including for justice-impacted job seekers. This is a subject WorkingNation has spent a lot of time exploring (see the article mentioned above) and we are dedicating an entire week to the issue later this year with our broadcast partner Scripps News Network. We'll have more details in the coming weeks.

Older Workers are a Growing Part of Our Labor Force

There were 11 million Americans age 65 and older working last year. That's nearly one in five people in the entire U.S. labor force. And that percentage is expected to grow to one in four over the next few years.

So what are we doing to ensure that they are armed with the skills they need to continue to succeed in careers they need and want?

That was top of mind at the American Society on Aging's annual conference last month in San Francisco. In fact, it was the opening session at the conference: Future Proofing Longevity and Our Working Lives.

The panel included Justin Steele, director, Americas, Google.org; Joe Barela, executive director, Colorado Department of Labor; Sharat Raghavan, head of Economic Graph, Data Science, LinkedIn; and Marina Gorbis, executive director, Institute for the Future.

Later, I joined some excellent thought leaders on older workers on stage – Kerry Hannon, columnist, Yahoo! Finance; Catherine Collinson, CEO and president, Transamerica Institute; and Haleh Nazeri, lead, Longevity Economy, World Economic Forum – to discuss what employers are doing to answer the question I posed here earlier.

I will have much more to say about what was discussed on those stages, along with the state of the older workforce, upskilling, and ageism in May, which is Older Americans Month. Look for my upcoming article at our website.

Finding Dignity in Work

Part of our mission at WorkingNation is to tell stories about organizations, programs, and initiatives that are helping some of the most vulnerable Americans find dignity in their lives through family-sustaining jobs.

Roadblocks to those jobs can come in many forms. One organization we’ve had the privilege of meeting and reporting on is the nonprofit Bet Tzedek in Los Angeles.

For five decades, Bet Tzedek has been battling injustice by providing free legal advice and representation to workers, small business owners, and others experiencing discrimination, disparities, and exploitation.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the nonprofit’s work offering hope and dignity to tens of thousands of Angelenos, WorkingNation executive producer Melissa Panzer and her team have produced a short documentary telling the story of the founding of Bet Tzedek.

• Watch a preview now: Official trailer for The Journey of Bet Tzedek
• Look for the full video at www.workingnation.org next week.

One Last (BIG) Thing...

A big shout out to Melissa, chief content and programming officer Joan Lynch, founder and CEO Art Bilger, and our entire WorkingNation team for its first Emmy nomination!!!

Last October, we released the WorkingNation-produced Breaking Barriers: Embracing Disabilities in the Workforce on PBS station WABE in Atlanta. The special examined how employers are tapping into the underutilized talent pool of people with disabilities to diversify their workforces while addressing worker shortages.

The program featured discussions led by veteran journalist Hari Sreenivasan and was made possible through the generous funding provided by the Ares Charitable Foundation.

• Watch now: Breaking Barriers: Embracing Disabilities in the Workforce

So proud of our team!!!

Until next time,

Ramona Schindelheim, WorkingNation editor-in-chief