Person:

Lipson, Rachel

The future of work increasingly requires workers of all education levels to reskill and upskill. As the rate of emerging technologies integrating into work rises, so do the costs to people who do not update their skills. Crucial skills for the future of work can be learned in reskilling and upskilling workforce programs.

While the U.S. workforce development sector provides an infrastructure for training workers to succeed in the workplace, this sector goes largely unrecognized due to its fragmentation. Practitioners and researchers alike have struggled to understand the connected picture of how higher education institutions, apprenticeships, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit organizations train American workers.

This working paper describes the Workforce Almanac, a first-of-its-kind effort to understand workforce training at a system-wide level. We provide a new open-source directory of nearly 17,000 workforce training providers across the United States. This dataset (available at http://www.workforcealmanac.com) offers ​​the most comprehensive view to date of U.S. workforce training providers, including provider names, locations, and types. To create this Almanac, we combined training provider information from four distinct sources into one new dataset, capturing federal Registered Apprenticeship providers, nonprofit providers, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)-eligible training providers, and higher education providers.

This report describes and analyzes the more than 75,000 “Eligible Training Provider” (ETP) programs in the United States. ETP programs are job training programs deemed eligible for funding under America’s primary federal workforce development law, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).[1] Among other functions, WIOA funds vouchers for unemployed or underemployed workers to enroll in job training services. The vouchers are typically used to support enrollment in short-term, non-four-year-degree programs that connect to "in-demand employment” opportunities in a regional economy. Under the law, each state and territory must maintain a list of pre-approved programs that eligible individuals may select from. The programs on these lists (commonly known as “eligible training provider lists” – ETPLs) comprise our primary unit of analysis.

We analyze federal and state data sources to better understand the publicly-funded job training landscape in the United States. We combine training provider and program data from the Department of Labor (DOL) with individual performance records and occupational datasets to study the types of providers receiving WIOA funding and the kinds of jobs for which they are training. In addition, we look at state websites for all 50 U.S. states to understand how program information is made available to potential enrollees. Our analysis seeks to answer three primary research questions:

1. What are the most common characteristics of WIOA-eligible training providers and programs?
2. Which fields of study and occupations are most commonly supported by federal funding?
3. Is federal funding for workforce training directed towards good-paying and in-demand occupations?

In the wake of COVID-19 and growing inequality, America needs more pathways that bridge education and career. New research from the Project on Workforce at Harvard draws on data from New Profit's Postsecondary Initiative for Equity to identify opportunities for the education-to-employment field and chart the course for connections to good jobs.

In this playbook, we provide a framework to help college better deliver on the American Dream. We create a coherent, comprehensive taxonomy of the landscape of college-to-jobs programs and policies through a review of the existing academic research according to a set of common criteria. With a focus on public two-year and four-year colleges, Minority Serving Institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities, we identify 13 “interventions” within the college ecosystem that could be used to ease the transition into good jobs in the workforce.

The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented uncertainties in the Massachusetts healthcare workforce. In this white paper, we revisit the spring and summer of 2020 to identify and evaluate the changes, challenges, and innovations induced by the COVID-19 pandemic to the Massachusetts healthcare labor market. We aim to address three broad questions: 1) What were the most significant changes to labor supply and demand in nursing, behavioral health, and direct care at the onset of the pandemic? 2) What actions and strategies did government agencies, employers, and educators deploy to respond to rapidly changing conditions on the ground? 3) Which of these changes are likely to be temporary and which may have lasting effects?

Throughout the first wave of the pandemic, job postings fluctuated by role and setting as employer and patient needs shifted in an uncertain environment. Initial unemployment claims in healthcare occupations increased dramatically and peaked in April and May of 2020, as demand decreased for elective procedures, out-patient care, and in-home care. Following the initial volatility in the spring, the healthcare labor market stabilized somewhat in the summer months, but unemployment remained persistent. However, the numbers concealed wide variation across roles, care settings, and regions in Massachusetts.

In the nursing workforce in Massachusetts, trends in Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims and job postings varied by region and specialization in 2020. Many ambulatory care nurses were laid off or furloughed, and the shortage of Critical Care Nurses intensified. The first wave of the pandemic interrupted an already-restricted pipeline of new nurses, limiting clinical placements and increasing wait times for licensing exams. Attrition and retirements among Registered Nurses (RNs) accelerated during the spring and summer of 2020, posing long-term workforce challenges, as increasingly tough working conditions deterred an aging RN workforce.

Direct care workers were also on the front lines of the pandemic. The impact of the first wave on job postings and UI claims varied greatly for different direct care roles. Job postings for Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) positions remained high, especially in long-term care (LTC) facilities, but were inconsistent for both Home Health Aides (HHAs) and Personal Care Aides (PCAs). The already-limited pipeline of new direct care workers was interrupted during the first wave, as clinical training and licensing exams grew increasingly unavailable.

For behavioral health workers, job postings decreased in April 2020, while new UI claims increased dramatically in April and May. However, both job postings and UI claims approached pre-pandemic levels by August 2020. Consumer request for behavioral health services appeared to increase during the first wave of the pandemic, as the crisis intensified stress on mental and behavioral health issues. The use of telehealth increased in behavioral health, as virtual services were rapidly implemented to reduce in-person exposure.

As these immense and unprecedented challenges in the healthcare workforce emerged during the first wave of the pandemic, Massachusetts piloted new and innovative approaches to educating healthcare trainees, providing patient care, and filling essential roles. To help address recruitment and hiring challenges in long-term care facilities, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts developed its first-ever online job portal dedicated to these roles. As COVID reduced access to on-site classes and clinical placements for healthcare students, training providers across the state have implemented and expanded programs for healthcare students to engage in remote learning.

State and Federal regulators also responded rapidly to support healthcare workers, employers, and consumers. New policies allowed out-of-state nurses, nurses with expired licenses, and nursing students in their final semester of school to enter the nursing workforce in Massachusetts. Several CNA licensing and clinical placement requirements were also relaxed or waived. In addition, after the onset of the pandemic, both Federal and State regulators approved hazard pay for many essential workers.

While the focus of this white paper is on the initial months following the onset of the pandemic, we also propose questions for future research in student enrollment in healthcare training programs, updates to CNA curriculum and licensing, transitioning displaced workers into healthcare roles, retirement rates among nurses, shifts in care settings, and the utilization of telehealth.

Immigrants are critical to the U.S. workforce, but there has been limited focus on what enables them to thrive in the economy. This report draws on data from 131 applicants to WES Mariam Assefa Fund’s open grant competition to better understand the landscape of programs, policies, and practices intended to strengthen immigrant inclusion in the workforce.

Analyzing these approaches, we find that:

• Programs are 50% more likely to focus on newcomers than longer-term residents.
• Two-thirds of organizations work with economic immigrants and refugees but less than 25% focus on migrant workers or immigration detainees. -Job quality is a growing priority. Over half of the organizations focus on increasing wages, career advancement, or creating a safe and inclusive work environment.
• Skills transferability is high need, but under-resourced. Only 5% of applicants focus on helping immigrants translate their credentials and experience from other countries.
• Over 80% of organizations plan to work with employers, but only one-quarter of organizations have direct hiring relationships. Employer advisory or advocacy efforts appear to be an increasing priority. -98% of organizations have leaders with lived experience in immigrant or refugee communities.

Building the New High Road highlights organizations that are working to build an economy where all immigrants have the chance to thrive. Investing in immigrants’ human potential is an investment in our collective future.