To be sure, upskilling 44% of the American workforce cannot happen overnight. But we already know the core characteristics of successful training programs: strong links to local employers and communities; a focus on specific sectors and occupations; screening to match applicants with target occupations; and individualized services for program completion and job success. The task is to make these programs affordable while also including wraparound assistance like counseling and childcare.
Many states and cities are already developing successful workforce training models. A total of 31 states participate in the Skillful State Network and are increasing apprenticeships and skills-training programs based on local economic conditions. In San Antonio, Project QUEST helps under-skilled adults—68% of whom are women and 66% Latino—earn post-secondary credentials and then connects them to well-paid job opportunities in strong sectors of the local economy (health care, manufacturing and trades, information technology). In 2018-19, program graduates increased their annual wage by 203%. And according to one recent study, participants’ wages continued to rise for nine years after finishing the program.
Similarly, the employer-led UpSkill Houston is combining skills training and community college programs to equip potential workers for employment in key local sectors including petrochemicals; industrial and commercial construction; health care; and the port, maritime and logistics industries. Most of these jobs require technical skills training, not a four-year college degree.
Community colleges are by far the most important providers of such training. Already, 17 states (Republican- and Democratic-leaning alike) have introduced some form of “tuition-free” community college, and another 12 states have similar legislation pending. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has proposed a federal-state partnership to provide tuition-free community college for up to two years. He also wants to commit $50 billion to support workforce training programs; develop short-term degrees through industry, union and community-college partnerships; and expand the Registered Apprenticeship Program.
The upheaval in work caused by the pandemic is accelerating the transition from an industrial to a digital economy. That means digital skills training will be essential for most good jobs in the future. The United States therefore has a choice: It can go digital with even higher levels of inequality than it already has, resulting in a dysfunctional and unsustainable “dual” economy, or it can invest in its workers so that today’s “bad” jobs can become tomorrow’s good jobs.
Laura Tyson, former chair of the U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisers, is professor of the Graduate School at the Berkeley Haas School of Business and Chair of the Blum Center Board of Trustees at UC Berkeley.
Lenny Mendonca, Senior Partner Emeritus at McKinsey & Company, is a former chief economic and business advisor to Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority.