Workforce Development
Key Points
- Understand that college is not the only pathway to success; career-readiness can come from four-year universities, associate or community colleges, or vocational training.
- Improve the K-12 system through competition, innovation, and school choice.
- Create regulatory space for educational programs that focus on the future employment needs of industries through education savings accounts.
- Encourage vocational education programs in the K-12 system and beyond.
- Encourage apprenticeship and certification programs that allow people to learn new trades in a real-world setting.
American businesses are increasingly worried about the quality of the workforce pool from which they will be hiring. Too few American students are graduating high school or college with the skills employers need. And while college is a pathway to career success for many students, it’s far from the only one.
The first link of the problem is, of course, the K-12 system, which all-too-frequently graduates barely-literate students totally unprepared for almost any job. Good vocational education options, which teach students a skill or trade to support themselves after school, are few and far between. The formal public education system has largely supplanted a historical network of apprenticeships, where those just starting out could learn a trade in exchange for work.
But exciting innovations on the horizon could revolutionize the way employers and students alike think about education, career-readiness, and vocational training.
Education savings accounts, which currently operate in five states and allow parents to choose and customize their children’s educational experiences down to the course level, provide an opportunity for businesses to shape or endorse curriculum, training, and certification options that teach the skills they look for in potential employees.
Legislators and regulators should avoid the siren song of “universal” college attendance, and instead work towards an education system that prepares students for successful career paths as varied as they are.
Model Policies
-
Right to Start Act Final
BE IT ENACTED BY THE __________ (GENERAL ASSEMBLY OR LEGISLATURE) OF THE STATE OF __________: This bill shall be known and may be cited as the “Right-to-Start Act.” Section A: Office of Entrepreneurship There is hereby created within the _________ (Department) of __________ (Economic Development or Commerce or Other)…
-
Associate Physician Act Final
Section 1: Associate Physicians; Licensure; Applications; Rules; Definitions A. An Associate Physician may practice as an Associate Physician as follows: (1) By providing only primary care services and only in medically underserved rural or urban areas of this state; and (2) Under the terms of an Associate…
-
American Civics and History Act Final
WHEREAS, the 2020 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey found that one out of every two Americans cannot name all three branches of government and one in five Americans are unable to name a single right guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; WHEREAS, the 2018…
-
Provisional Licenses for Ex-Offenders Act Final
Section 1. {Provisional License} (A) Notwithstanding any other law and unless the applicant has been convicted of an offense described by Section 2, a licensing authority shall issue to an otherwise qualified applicant who has been convicted of an offense: (1) The license for which the applicant applied;…
-
Right to Earn a Living Act Final
Right to Earn a Living Act Summary Among the rights Americans cherish the most are freedoms to pursue a chosen enterprise or profession. Yet of all the rights we deem fundamental, economic liberty has eroded most of all, to the extent that the “right” to receive…
-
Occupational Licensing Defense Act Final
{Title, enacting clause, etc.} Section 1. {Purpose} This Act’s purpose is to: (A) Ensure that an individual may pursue a lawful occupation free from unnecessary occupational regulations, and (B) Protect against the misuse of occupational regulations to reduce competition and increase prices to consumers. Section 2. {Definitions} The following definitions…