Giving Compass' Take:

• The authors examine the responsibility of k-12 educators to help children develop skills for the workforce or if alternatively, we should look to businesses and employers to help with that responsibility. 

• Ultimately, how can both employers and educators collaborate on workforce development programs? 

• Read about the workforce training strategies to prepare the next generation of water workers. 

One of the most important and challenging questions related to preparing people for the workforce is, “Who’s actually responsible?” When it comes to K-12 education, for more than 150 years, there’s been widespread agreement that the public (i.e. the government in some form) has a large obligation. We have a collective interest in seeing to it that all kids learn basic skills, essential content, citizenship, and so forth.

But when it comes to who’s on the hook for ensuring people are ready to work, there’s far less clarity. Is it the individual, the family, the high school, the community college, the four-year college, the state government, the employer, civil society, labor unions? Does each have a different type of responsibility?

One possible reform is to enable a wider array of education providers to access federal funds and federal student aid—an avenue that seemed to get a vote of confidence from an administration official. But that means continued (or more) federal aid, and, since there are concerns that new providers might be less reliable than traditional higher-education institutions, considerable federal oversight.

Education Week recently highlighted Arkansas’s investment in career coaches in high schools to help students match with higher education institutions, training programs, and job opportunities. And IBM just announced plans to partner with community colleges to provide more internships and apprenticeships.

As we continue trying to solve our jobs and skills problems, we need to appreciate this basic challenge: It’s hard to create an action plan when there’s no consensus on what various actors should and shouldn’t do.

Read the full article about workforce training by Andy Smarick at AEI