JFF’s Policy Agenda for a Learn-and-Work System With Boundless Opportunities at School, at Work, and in Life
Voters across party lines agree on what matters this election year. Do you?
On Super Tuesday, Jobs for the Future (JFF) launched No Dead Ends, a national campaign calling for policymakers and candidates for elected office to do two things this election year: Pursue common-sense bipartisan policy solutions that meet the needs of today’s learners and workers, and focus more intently on the kitchen-table issues that voters really care about.
In June, just before the first 2024 presidential debate, JFF commissioned a survey of more than 2,000 registered voters to ask Democrats, Republicans, and Independents whether issues on educational and economic opportunities mattered to them this campaign season.
Voters rated the importance of education, employment, and economic issues on a five-point scale from “very important” or “somewhat important” to “a little important” or “not at all important,” with a neutral option for “don’t know/no opinion.” Ratings of “very important” or “somewhat important” are grouped as “important” below.
What we found: Regardless of which party controls the White House, Congress, or state houses, voters across party lines want elected officials to not only do better, but also reengineer our education and employment systems to eliminate the dead ends millions of workers and learners face in their pursuit of economic advancement.
Of the issues covered in our survey, respondents identified these as the five most important:
Our polling also revealed that these issues were important to respondents across party lines:
OF VOTERS AGREE IT’S IMPORTANT TO: 77%
Provide high school students with paid work-based learning experiences, such as youth apprenticeships and internships, while they attend school.
OF VOTERS AGREE IT’S IMPORTANT TO:
Boost funding for college and career advising to help high school students and families make informed choices.
OF VOTERS AGREE IT’S IMPORTANT TO:
Provide high school students with the opportunity to take college-level courses and earn credit toward a college degree or credential.
OF VOTERS AGREE IT’S IMPORTANT TO:
Increase funding for registered apprenticeships programs.
OF VOTERS AGREE IT’S IMPORTANT TO:
Increase child care access for workers.
OF VOTERS AGREE IT’S IMPORTANT TO:
Increase funding for job training programs.
OF VOTERS AGREE IT’S IMPORTANT TO:
Hold colleges and other postsecondary education and training providers accountable for increasing the number of their graduates who get jobs that pay a family-supporting wage.
Voters support the core tenet of the No Dead Ends campaign.
Everyone should get the support they need to explore their learning and work options and make decisions that best match their goals and needs. OF VOTERS AFFIRM: 81%
89% of Democrats
78% of Republicans 76% of Independents
Voters rated their support on a five-point scale: “very supportive,” “somewhat supportive,” “neutral,” “somewhat unsupportive,” or “very unsupportive.” Ratings of “very supportive” or “somewhat supportive” are grouped as affirming statements.
Voters are not satisfied with the attention that candidates are giving to these economic and education issues.
SATISFIED WITH ATTENTION TO EMPLOYMENT & ECONOMIC ISSUES:
41% of voters
SATISFIED WITH ATTENTION TO POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION & TRAINING ISSUES:
36% of voters
SATISFIED WITH ATTENTION TO SECONDARY EDUCATION ISSUES:
35% of voters
Voters rated their satisfaction on a five-point scale: “very satisfied,” “somewhat satisfied,” “don’t know/no opinion,” “a little satisfied,” or “not at all satisfied.” Ratings of “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” are grouped as “satisfied.”
Voters want elected officials to pursue bipartisan solutions on the issues they think are important.
AGREE IT’S IMPORTANT THAT OFFICIALS PURSUE BIPARTISAN SOLUTIONS ON EMPLOYMENT & ECONOMIC ISSUES:
77% of voters
AGREE IT’S IMPORTANT THAT OFFICIALS PURSUE BIPARTISAN SOLUTIONS ON POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION & TRAINING ISSUES:
72% of voters
AGREE IT’S IMPORTANT THAT OFFICIALS PURSUE BIPARTISAN SOLUTIONS ON SECONDARY EDUCATION ISSUES:
68% of voters
Sign the No Dead Ends pledge and read our policy recommendations: info.jff.org/nodeadends
Voters rated the importance of education, employment, and economic issues on a five-point scale: “very important,” “somewhat important,” “don’t know/ no opinion,” “a little important,” or “not at all important.” Ratings of “very important” or “somewhat important” are grouped as “important.”
The U.S. labor market faces significant worker shortages, with just for 7.7M open jobs.
Workforce Innovation & Transformation
While many employers can’t find the skilled workers they need, many Americans don’t have the support they need to reenter the labor market and advance economically.
At Jobs for the Future (JFF), we aim to strengthen our nation’s workforce, expand economic opportunity, and help more workers get the jobs and skills they need by transforming our country’s workforce development system.
Recommendations to modernize workforce development
Reauthorize and fund the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)
Congress is already working to reauthorize WIOA through the A Stronger Workforce for America (ASWA) Act. This bill emphasizes employer-led training, program outcomes, youth populations, and people returning to their community after incarceration. Congress should pass this bill with the necessary investment to ensure its effective implementation.
Enhance career navigation services
Many workers struggle to access necessary career and training opportunities and/or advance once in them. Congress and the administration should address these gaps by modernizing career guidance tools, integrating real-time labor market insights, and improving access to workforce navigation systems.
Advance skills-first hiring
Outdated degree requirements in both federal hiring and private-sector hiring limit opportunities for skilled workers. The administration should build on its recent executive order that expanded skills-first hiring across federal agencies, including the addition of federal contractors and support for skills-first hiring in the private sector.
Ensure training is industry driven
Congress should pass the Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success (SECTORS) Act and support funding for competitive grants to expand sector partnerships nationwide.
Expand high-quality skill development for future jobs
To maximize the impact of federally funded programs, the administration should issue an executive order to improve interagency coordination, outcomes-based research, and improved data collection and analysis.
85%
OF REGISTERED VOTERS
surveyed said they favor policy action to improve economic opportunities for workers and their families.
Morning Consult survey for JFF, September 2024.
Source:
America Works Data Center,
Chamber of Commerce, March 2025.
We partner with employers, workers, community-based organizations, and the public workforce system to expand America’s skilled workforce, strengthen regional economies, and scale innovation and best practices.
Examples of our successes in states:
Connecticut
Through JFF’s work with the Connecticut Workforce Data Initiative, we helped create a data dictionary to standardize terminology and improve data sharing, while using AI to understand program outcomes and enhance service delivery across the state.
Alabama
JFF’s partnership with West AlabamaWorks helped the state’s workforce board use asset-based community research to identify service gaps that have historically caused workforce development program participants to leave programs early.
Hampton Roads, VA
By collaborating with the Hampton Roads Workforce Development Board, JFF helped the region develop key public-private partnerships in the maritime and health care sectors. We
Learn more
JFF’s Federal Policy Blueprint for the Trump Administration Recommendations for the Incoming President’s First 100 Days and Beyond
Six Critical Actions for a New Congress in a New Year Policy Recommendations to Invest in Our Workforce and Economy
44%
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
The typical employer sees a in apprenticeship through increased productivity, reduced costs, and frontline innovation.
Source: Abt Associates for U.S. Department of Labor, 2022.
Expanding Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a proven way to strengthen the nation’s workforce and help people get good jobs. But for employers, offering apprenticeship can be complex and time-consuming.
At Jobs for the Future (JFF), we help employers cut through the red tape and expand high-quality apprenticeship programs, addressing regional skill gaps and advancing economic opportunity for learners and workers.
Recommendations to advance and scale apprenticeship
Modernize the system
Streamline the registration process, promote competency-based models that prioritize skills mastery over seat time, and make apprenticeships accessible in a wider range of occupations and industries.
Prioritize investment
Expand high-quality, in-demand apprenticeship by designating funds, including resources for data collection, so more information is available on the programs that lead to strong economic outcomes.
Expand employer engagement
Remove barriers and offer financial incentives to increase employer participation, including offering tax credits to incentivize employers to retain apprentices through completion and create youth-focused apprenticeship programs.
Integrate apprenticeship into education
Make apprenticeship accessible to every young person who wants to participate by expanding youth and pre-apprenticeship programs.
Empower intermediaries
Support a broader set of intermediary organizations, including public, private, and nonprofit organizations, which play a vital role in scaling apprenticeships.
84% OF REGISTERED VOTERS surveyed favor policy action to expand apprenticeship, so more people can earn a living while they learn the skills that lead to good jobs.
We work with employers, government agencies, and other key intermediaries to modernize apprenticeship and expand it across more industries.
Examples of our successes in states:
Across the country, we’ve served supported and created 12,000 APPRENTICES, 3,100 EMPLOYERS, 155 REGISTERED APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMS.
JFF’s Federal Policy Blueprint for the Trump Administration Recommendations for the Incoming President’s First 100 Days and Beyond
South Carolina
Thanks to its partnership with JFF, the Charleston Regional Youth Apprenticeships program at Trident Technical College has expanded and now offers 18 career pathways, including welding, cybersecurity, and culinary arts, across 9 industries with more than 180 employer partners.
Maine
JFF’s collaboration with Educate Maine has enrolled more than 80 young adults in apprenticeship programs, created 8 new Registered Apprenticeship programs and 8 new pre-apprenticeship programs, and expanded 5 existing programs.
Washington State
With JFF’s support, the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County has strengthened pathways from pre-apprenticeship to Registered Apprenticeship in aerospace, health care, and manufacturing.
Six Critical Actions for a New Congress in a New Year Policy Recommendations to Invest in Our Workforce and Economy
81% OF REGISTERED VOTERS
surveyed said they favor policy action to prioritize K-12 and higher education curricula that prepare people for jobs in high-skill, highwage, and in-demand industries.
Source: Morning Consult survey for JFF, September 2024.
Improving CareerDriven Education
Many students and workers are seeking career-driven education and training that align with good jobs and family-sustaining wages. At the same time, employers want to fill millions of new jobs over the next decade, many of which require a credential beyond a high school diploma.
Jobs for the Future (JFF) is a leader in policy reforms that expand career pathways that work, including dual enrollment, career and technical education, competency-based education, and a broad array of options for financing career-driven education.
Recommendations to improve career-driven education
Champion career-driven education
Prioritize future-focused learning, including dual enrollment for every high school student, federal support for innovative state strategies to increase young people’s career readiness, and recruitment and retention of industry professionals to teach career and technical education.
Support affordable and accessible pathways to quality non-degree credentials
Pass legislation to expand the Pell Grant program to cover quality shorter-term credential programs.
Promote innovation in market-based education financing solutions
Pass legislation to clarify and strengthen the tax and regulatory treatment governing income share agreements and outcomesbased loans offered by the private sector. By 2031,
Modernize postsecondary systems
Support postsecondary systems to embrace skills-first, competency-based education, prior learning assessments, and other innovative models.
72% OF U.S. JOBS.
will require some form of postsecondary education or training—an annual average of
12.5M JOB OPENINGS
That’s far larger than the projected
3.9M PEOPLE
who will earn an undergraduate degree in 2031, highlighting the need for a broader array of postsecondary education options.
Our education experts partner with employers, educators, workers, and government leaders to connect more young adults to in-demand careers through clear pathways to high-skill, high-wage industries.
Examples of our successes in states:
We work with colleges, districts, and business and industry partners to design and scale career pathways in more than
that serve more than half of all U.S. high school students and two-thirds of community college students.
Learn more
JFF’s Federal Policy Blueprint for the Trump Administration Recommendations for the Incoming President’s First 100 Days and Beyond
Texas
With JFF’s support, the state’s education agency has funded and guided multiple regional, cross-sector teams to design and implement high-quality career and education pathways.
Ohio
With guidance from JFF, Dayton business leaders and educators mapped new career pathways to six high-demand fields in the local labor market, including computer science, aerospace and aviation, and business and management.
Colorado
JFF advised a Colorado task force on developing reforms that led to the state enacting several pieces of legislation to make it easier for high schoolers to get work-based learning, college credit, and postsecondary credentials that lead to good jobs.
Six Critical Actions for a New Congress in a New Year Policy Recommendations to Invest in Our Workforce and Economy
Building a future that works—for everyone.
Jobs for the Future (JFF) transforms U.S. education and workforce systems to drive economic success for people, businesses, and communities.
We are reimagining what’s possible—leading public, private, and nonprofit changemakers to new ideas and proven solutions that increase economic mobility, strengthen the labor market, and enhance U.S. competitiveness.
Our practice-informed, nonpartisan expertise helps state and federal leaders make real impact.
Skills-First Hiring
A few examples of our successes together: Community Colleges Apprenticeship
600+ CORPORATE LEADERS
are using skills-first practices to recruit and retain highly skilled talent and sharing strategies for success.
500 COMMUNITY COLLEGES
4.5M LEARNERS serving
are innovating ways to help many more students earn career credentials that lead to good jobs.
35 STATES
900 EMPLOYERS and
are expanding proven earn-and-learn models like apprenticeship to more people and more industries.
Need trusted bipartisan ideas to strengthen your workforce? We
have a 40-year track record advising Republicans and Democrats.
For example, our Congressional Staff Network and Executive Branch Network are longstanding bipartisan and cross-agency educational opportunities for senior staff who focus on education, workforce development, and economic mobility issues.
Examples of our impact across the country:
Tennessee
Greg Morgan is learning a skilled trade while earning a good living, thanks to JFF’s expansion of apprenticeship. The Nashville resident is an apprentice service technician earning $26 per hour for a large HVAC manufacturer, and he’ll earn as much as $38 per hour in his first year as a full technician. Last year, we helped employers across the country build 35 Registered Apprenticeship programs that served 1,200 apprentices like Morgan in advanced manufacturing alone.
Indiana
Skills-first hiring and talent management practices are accelerating throughout the state, with support from JFF and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. Together, we’ve trained more than 120 employers, created a learning community to share resources and best practices, and worked with employers to spread the use of digital learning and employment records, which can speed adoption of skills-first hiring.
Texas
To strengthen the state’s workforce, JFF forged connections between education and industry. For example, we helped develop and implement a state plan to increase access to apprenticeships, internships, virtual workspaces, and other work-based learning for Texans. We also advised policymakers on creating a new performance-based funding model for the community college system, incentivizing institutions to improve student outcomes such as increasing the number of people earning credentials with labor market value.
JFF’s Top Policy Wins in 2024
Jobs for the Future (JFF)
Building a Future That Works.
Published Dec 19, 2024 + Follow
This election season, JFF launched its first-ever advocacy campaign, No Dead Ends, to draw attention to the kitchen table issues that voters across political divides care about, to elevate common-sense policy ideas that both parties support, and to make education and workforce systems more responsive to the needs of the modern economy.
As 2024 comes to a close, we are excited to share our top policy wins across the key priority areas of our No Dead Ends campaign.
Providing practitioner insights to Congress to inform the proposed WIOA reauthorization
A major policy priority of No Dead Ends is empowering people with data, guidance, and resources that enable them to navigate their work and learning journeys. That means providing learners and workers with timely labor market information, career guidance, and flexible resources to support their skills development efforts and inform their career decisions.
Strong majorities of registered voters surveyed by JFF in September told us they agree: 84% of voters polled by JFF said they support policy action to improve career guidance, while 70% or more said they support increasing funding for job training and short-term credential programs with value in the labor market.
The country needs a strong national infrastructure to prepare people for and connect them to good jobs. That’s why at JFF we are encouraged that Congress is pursuing reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). In 2024, JFF played an active role in shaping key provisions of the bipartisan bill, including proposals for stronger workforce data and improvements to the Eligible Training Provider List, as well as an increased focus on employer-led training efforts in high-demand sectors.
Highlights of our engagement include:
Testifying before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Issuing a federal policy playbook for overhauling the workforce development system, as well as a series of issue briefs focused on transforming training and improving data access and alignment, based on the recommendations of a JFF task force of workforce leaders.
Hosting congressional staff trips to Texas and North Carolina, where participants gained firsthand insights on local workforce development board efforts to expand opportunities for workers and jobseekers.
Co-leading the development of a coalition letter to federal policymakers urging them to take action to strengthen the workforce data ecosystem.
Read our analysis of the proposed WIOA reauthorization bill, the “A Stronger Workforce for America” Act.
Joining forces with federal and state leaders to champion career-connected learning for youth and young adults
No Dead Ends also prioritizes erasing the boundaries between learning and work to foster common purpose among educators and employers. This means smoothing the transitions from high school to postsecondary credential programs and the world of work through intentional forms of dual enrollment and high-quality work-based learning experiences.
Voters JFF polled indicated that they’re in favor of policies that promote careerconnected learning: 84% said they support policy action to expand apprenticeship programs, while 81% said K-12 and higher education curricula should prepare students for high-wage jobs in growing industries that require advanced skills.
In 2024, JFF partnered with federal and state policymakers to promote policies that advance our “Big Blur” vision—which calls for greater integration between high school, college, and careers. Those efforts included:
Promoting Colorado’s impressive policy efforts at the Education Policy Forum of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). JFF moderated a panel discussion with officials from the Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado Governor’s Office about major policy wins stemming from recommendations made by a state task force, dubbed the Big Blur task force, which JFF advised.
Partnering with the Biden administration to organize the Classroom to Career Summit to celebrate effective approaches for expanding career pathways to good-paying jobs in the infrastructure, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing sectors. The summit featured a cabinet member panel discussion and was attended by senior administration officials and nearly 200 education and workforce leaders.
Holding federal policy forums for congressional staff and executive branch officials to examine states that are effectively expanding “intentional” dual enrollment policies and explore federal policy enablers and blockers. The forums were inspired by a JFF policy brief titled From Fragmented to Focused: Intentional Dual Enrollment and the Federal Role in Maximizing Student Experiences. Co-developed with Advance CTE and the College in High School Alliance, the brief focused on the need for improving federal policies that support high-quality dual enrollment.
Dig into JFF’s state policy resources for building momentum toward the Big Blur, including a suite of issue briefs, state case studies, and a state policy framework.
Sharing new research and innovations for removing policy barriers to economic opportunities
The fourth policy priority of No Dead Ends is helping people get ahead during times of economic uncertainty and personal adversity. That means removing structural barriers through policies that promote fair-chance hiring and educational opportunities for people with criminal records, outcomes-based financing measures for postsecondary education and training that encourage risk-sharing and cost-sharing, and reforms of public benefits programs that support caregivers and foster economic advancement.
Strong majorities of the voters JFF polled indicated that they support action on a range of economic security measures: 77% said they support increased tax credits for parents and employers to make child care more affordable and widely accessible; 68% said they support “banning the box”—or eliminating questions about criminal records on job and school applications—and automatically expunging old, low-level offenses from people’s records; and 60% said they support income-based repayment of student loans.
In 2024, JFF engaged policymakers to expand their understanding of the lived experiences of learners and workers and of the effectiveness of innovative approaches to improving access to postsecondary education and skills training by:
Conducting groundbreaking research on how strong, income-based features in education financing can prevent student loan debt from exacerbating racial disparities and sharing our findings and policy recommendations during meetings and briefings with House and Senate offices and with state legislators on the NCSL’s “Our American States” podcast.
Informing state actions on prison education by contributing to the development of North Carolina’s Reentry 2030 Strategic Plan and by hosting Maine state legislators on visits to state correctional facilities to meet people who earned college degrees while incarcerated.
Presenting research and recommendations for policies that will help build a workforce that’s prepared for a future of work shaped by artificial intelligence during several meetings with state legislators, including at the Eastern Regional Conference of The Council of State Governments .
Learn more about JFF's #NoDeadEnds policy priorities.
No Dead Ends is JFF's national policy campaign to eliminate dead ends for all learners and workers.
Stay Connected
Sign the No Dead Ends pledge to join us and at least 90 other individuals and organizations who have already joined the movement.
Subscribe for updates on policy and advocacy from JFF.
Read JFF's federal policy blueprint for the incoming Trump administration's first 100 days.
This country’s approach to learning and work was built for a bygone era. It still assumes that most people make a linear journey through life: graduate from high school and, perhaps, college, get a job, raise a family, and retire.
Nowadays, many people change career paths multiple times throughout their lives. Their professional interests may shift. Job sites shutter. New career opportunities emerge. New technologies upend old ways of working, making some skills and job tasks obsolete. Family responsibilities require a rebalancing of priorities and result in career detours.
Yet, as they try to navigate these changing circumstances, people are encountering education and workforce systems that are too rigid, fragmented, and cumbersome to help them move on to new stages of their lives, learn new skills, and discover new careers. Antiquated systems and policies lay all the burdens, risks, and opportunity costs on workers and learners themselves—and often leave them facing dead ends instead of pursuing new opportunities for economic advancement.
We can put an end to these dead ends at school, at work, and in life.
According to JFF's June 2024 survey, 81% of registered voters—including 89% of Democrats, 78% of Republicans, and 75% of Independents—affirm the core tenet of No Dead Ends: Everyone should get the support they need to explore their learning and work options and make decisions that best match their goals and needs.
People deserve an education and workforce system that provides boundless opportunities to advance economically.
About No Dead Ends
Our Vision Our Vision Our Vision Our Vision
Imagine learning and work environments that place:
No limits on the aspirations of learners and workers.
No artificial endpoints on career pathways.
No impossible choices between pursuing opportunities to advance one’s career and taking care of family responsibilities.
No harmful risks when making decisions to change directions in one’s work and learning journey.
This vision requires that we re-engineer the nation’s education and workforce systems to promote economic advancement, with the goal of making all high-quality options for learning and work accessible, discoverable, and achievable in the following ways:
Accessible: All options for learning and work are available through permeable entry points, regardless of where people are along their learning and work journeys.
Discoverable: Everyone can explore their learning and work options and make decisions that best match their goals and needs.
Achievable: All options for learning and work are attainable, no matter the circumstances and challenges people encounter.
This future is within our reach if we, as a nation, pursue bold policy and systems change.
Subscribe to our No Dead Ends mailing list to receive updates on the campaign from JFF.
Jobs for the Future (JFF)’s Post
Jobs for the Future (JFF)
72,993 followers
4mo Edited
Last week, JFF’s Congressional Staff Network (CSN) traveled to Clark County, Nevada, to get a firsthand look at the region’s cross-sector approach to economic development. Throughout the three-day site visit, this bipartisan, bicameral group of senior Congressional staffers learned from leaders on the ground—like Jaime Cruz, executive director of Workforce Connections, southern Nevada's local #workforcedevelopment board —how the region is bringing key partners together to diversify the economy and ensure strong talent pipelines in emerging sectors.
Congressional staffers who attended said southern Nevada presented a clear example of how collaborative, data-driven #policy can bring economic diversification and success to a region. Staff said the experience revealed the importance of designing policy with enough flexibility for areas like this to continue to innovate, creating cross-sector solutions that address the unique needs of their region.
The #LasVegas region is seeing rapid growth, presenting both opportunities and challenges. While hospitality remains the dominant industry, leaders are working to diversify the state’s economy with recent growth in the transportation, education, and construction sectors. These realities require strategies to attract new businesses and connect workers to in-demand jobs.
To respond to the state and region’s changing economic landscape, Workforce Connections is going beyond its federally mandated responsibilities by leveraging community assets alongside foundation and private sector resources to drive alignment across crucial workforce initiatives.
Their EmployNV Business Hubs, co-located in public libraries and at the Vegas Chamber, help employers navigate hiring challenges by reaching jobseekers in their communities and help small and midsize businesses tap into available resources to support their talent development needs.
Other partners are modernizing to meet talent needs across the state as well. To address Nevada’s teacher shortage, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas launched the state’s first-ever teacher #apprenticeship program, the NV|Forward Initiative. Students in the program have a 97% graduation rate.
Staffers also saw firsthand the role of workforce development in #fairchancehiring: Nevada’s Hope for Prisoners Vocational Village at Southern Desert Correctional Center is home to one of the first American Job Centers inside a correctional facility and provides incarcerated learners with vocational training, industryrecognized credentials, and connections with employers up to 18 months pre-release, plus ongoing support post-release.
Meanwhile, Workforce Connections is pioneering an expansive, cross-sector effort to address Clark County’s severe youth disconnection crisis, which has secured support and buy-in from more than 20 community partners to pilot strategies like expanding dual enrollment and hands-on career exploration.
#NVJobs EmployNV of Southern Nevada #NoDeadEnds
Jobs for the Future (JFF)’s Post
Jobs for the Future (JFF)
73,157 followers 10mo · Edited
"I think getting these kind of incremental changes and reforms that are being considered across the line and signed into law, I think would be terrific," JFF CEO Maria Flynn told moderator Paul Fain and a bipartisan group of policy experts at JFF's #virtual panel yesterday. "But I would also hope that the next administration— whoever's in the White House—can launch a more robust, holistic view and review of what is a lifelong learning or talent development system for the United States and what should that look like, so it isn't beholden or built off of systems that were designed for a bygone era."
Almost 400 people tuned in to watch JFF's live panel, "The Outlook for Workforce and Education Policy," on the future of education and workforce policy in the U.S., where Maria joined policy experts Michael Brickman, Denise Forte, Seth Harris, and John Pallasch to discuss voter perspectives on policies from both political parties this election year and on JFF's bold federal #NoDeadEnds policy priorities.
If you missed the stream, watch the full recording on YouTube: https://hubs.la/Q02RMzgC0
Fellow panelists from past Democratic and Republican administrations agreed with Maria’s call to action and shared common ground in encouraging the next president to take action on:
Promoting a skills-first approach to employment and education
Expanding Pell grants to include quality, short-term credentials
Focusing on data, performance, and accountability to better assess and fund what works and incentivize systems to better serve the needs of people
Enhancing career guidance so people are better equipped to navigate their learning and work options
Pushing for innovation and swifter governmental action to address critical workforce and skill needs
But what does this mean for the learners and workers navigating our country's outdated #education and #workforce systems, whose paths to economic advancement are filled with dead ends? And what can you do to help?
Learn more about JFF’s No Dead Ends policy campaign, read our federal and
Jobs for the Future (JFF)’s Post
Jobs for the Future (JFF)
73,157 followers
10mo
We at JFF are honored that nearly 400 of you joined us and our bipartisan panel of policy experts and political insiders today to talk about the future of federal workforce and education #policy.
Today's #virtual event revealed key insights from our newest survey of registered voters on bipartisan bills currently in Congress, on core policy ideas from JFF's national policy and advocacy campaign, No Dead Ends, and on education- and workforce-related policy proposals from both the Democratic Party and Republican Party platforms to build a skilled #workforce and expand economic opportunities for learners and workers.
As the #Election2024 campaign season continues to pick up steam and with only about a month left before #ElectionDay, we asked 1,800 registered voters for their take on 22 education and workforce policy ideas, ultimately finding that, across the board, at least 60% of respondents indicated their support for these policy priorities, including our own bold federal #NoDeadEnds policy recommendations.
Want to know which policy priorities had the most support from the voters we surveyed? Read our summary of the results, plus download our free two-pager summarizing the results of JFF's previous voter survey from June, on our new No Dead Ends campaign hub: https://hubs.la/Q02RzXy90
No Dead Ends - Jobs for the Future (JFF) info.jff.org
