Barriers to Re-Skilling and Training Programs

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/sustainable-inclusive-growth/the-strong-job-market-isnt-benefiting-all-americans

In a Brookings, “Realism about reskilling” report, the authors state reskilling must be linked to local opportunities. To be inclusive, the programs must meet workers where they are:

The same report identified economic and social barriers that included:

1. Encouraging user entry
   1. “Most workforce organizations neglect advertising and marketing to the audiences that could most benefit. Little innovation has taken place to fill this void… Marketing aside, word of mouth still dominates program recruitment.” Propel Inc. started the app Fresh EBT which includes a jobs board.
   2. Language - While technology can enhance outreach, it does not solve everything. Other population-specific needs such as age and English proficiency must be considered. 7.7 million workers are low-wage workers who report speaking English less than well
2. Building Self-Efficacy
3. Navigating Careers and Systems
   1. Mathematica Policy Research found that participants who receive help selecting their workforce training outperform those who pursue reskilling without any career coaching. Despite these clear benefits, today’s skilling infrastructure is insufficient and under-resourced. People make education and career decisions as a result of a complex set of personal, familial, societal, and educational factors. Often, however, their only formal career guidance comes from school guidance counselors.
4. Assisting with economic and social barriers
   1. Research suggests that low-wage workers face significant time constraints and additional responsibilities. Research indicates that nontraditional students with two or more “risk factors,” such as part-time enrollment or financial independence, complete bachelors’ degrees at a rate of only 17 percent, compared with 54 percent among traditional students
      1. Children - Twenty-nine percent of low-wage workers have children. Thirty-seven percent of low-wage workers with children are single parents, compared with 17 percent of non-low-wage workers with children
5. Providing Good Content
6. Sustaining Support
   1. Only 43 percent of a sample of 332 programs serving low-income, unemployed persons across the nation provided post-employment support to the majority of participants beyond basic monitoring.
   2. A recent comprehensive study of federal jobs programs found four years after the intervention that only 37 percent of workers remained employed in the field in which they were trained. Another study estimates that after 10 years, returns to worker retraining fully erode.