Workforce development in a skills-first economy
The skills gap isn’t the real crisis
State governments, working with higher education institutions and employers, have long made workforce development central to economic growth. But these efforts are increasingly limited by a more fundamental challenge: there is no clear, shared view of skills across the system.
While the gap between the skills employers need and the skills people have gets most of the attention, it is only part of the problem. The deeper issue is that states and their partners lack a consistent way to see, track, and understand skills across education and employment.
Most systems were not designed for this. Higher education institutions have focused on delivering degrees, and workforce systems have relied on job titles and proxies. As a result, skills are difficult to verify, hard to compare, and not easily shared across organizations.
In this paper, we explore why a stronger skills data foundation is critical, and how states, in partnership with education providers and industry, can build a more connected and effective workforce system.
Dive into our thinking:
From degrees to data: Transforming workforce development with a skills infrastructure
A more effective workforce strategy requires a shared and trusted way to understand both talent supply and employer demand. That means creating a foundation that allows states, education providers, and employers to work from the same information about which skills are needed and where they exist.
Download PDFStrengthening the partnership
A shared approach to skills data can help states, education providers, and employers work from the same foundation.
- By providing more timely and detailed insight into workforce demand (based on skills rather than job titles or degrees) it enables states to plan, invest, and respond to changing economic needs with greater precision.
- It helps education and training providers align programs more directly to those needs, so learning stays relevant and connected to real opportunities.
- It gives employers clearer, more reliable information about candidate capabilities in a format they can use, making it easier to find and hire the right talent.
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