Rachel Zinn

WDQC Director

June 10, 2015

WorkforceDQC.org

Making Sense of the Skills Gap Conversation

Everybody’s Talkin’ At Me

• Advocate for inclusive, aligned and market-relevant education

and workforce data that can help our nation’s human capital

policies meet the challenges of a changing economy.

• Promote federal and state reforms for data systems that provide

useful information for policymakers, students and workers,

business leaders and educators.

– State Blueprint with 13 key features of a high-quality data infrastructure

– Address federal legislation, funding and technical assistance

– Policy agenda developed by broad coalition of national organizations,

state leaders and technical experts across education/workforce spectrum

WDQC Mission

National Partners

Funders

Apollo Education Group

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Joyce Foundation

Laura & John Arnold Foundation

Lumina Foundation

• Renewed Focus on Skills Gap

• Types of Skills Gaps

• Where Do We Go From Here?

Overview

Hot Topic

• Recession, slow recovery, shifting economy

• Influential employer advocacy

• Student debt / rethinking higher education

• Ongoing concerns about global competition

• One of few bipartisan policy issues

Context for the Conversation

Types of Skills Gap

• Soft skills, work readiness

• Basic literacy/numeracy skills

• Technical competencies

• Credential/occupation mismatch

• Skills gap vs. wage gap

• K-12 / career pathways / BA degree

• Employer or gov’t responsibility

• Credentials or skills?

Big Debates

Influencing the Debate

• Sound methodology is critical, but only goes so far

• Understanding policy context makes research actionable

• Design research questions & disseminate results with sensitivity to how they are used

Contact

Rachel Zinn, Director

rachelz@workforcedqc.org

202-223-8355, ext. 113

WorkforceDQC.org