Manufacturing employers often cite challenges to finding and hiring a sufficient number of highly skilled and diverse workers, so it is important to understand how pathways into manufacturing and the retention of manufacturing workers may be improved. The authors of this report address this research gap by examining the pipeline between Ohio's…

The U.S. manufacturing industry is experiencing a resurgence and faces a growing need for highly skilled workers. Recent reports project that demand for highly-skilled manufacturing workers will outpace supply in coming years, and this shortage may grow as the U.S. manufacturing industry grows and its labor needs shift. Furthermore, manufacturing…

This playbook provides ways in which Governors and teams can blur the lines between high school, postsecondary education, and the workforce. Governors play a significant role to Raise the Bar for student success by developing an "education-to-workforce system" that focuses on Unlocking Career Success.

Despite the growing popularity of WBL, the community college and workforce development fields need greater transparency and clarity on the design of these programs to broaden workforce pathways, ensure the transferability of exemplary program models, and support the advancement of equitable outcomes for all students, especially learners from…

It has been two years since Mike DeWine was sworn in to serve as Ohio's 70th governor, joined by Jon Husted as lieutenant governor. From the very beginning, Governor DeWine requested that his Cabinet listen carefully to the people of the state and then proceed to act with a sense of urgency to change Ohio. In 2019, Chancellor Randy Gardner began…

Today, young people need both cross-cutting skills and specialized knowledge to thrive in the nation's rapidly changing economy. Business leaders require skilled talent to innovate and grow. And state and local communities need a workforce ready to lead new economies and industries. These shifts are achievable when states and regions embrace a…

Prior research has classified strategies to facilitate adult learners' transitions to postsecondary opportunities into five broad categories: advising, General Educational Development-plus (GED-plus), English as a second language, career pathways, and college preparatory (Zafft, Kallenbach, & Spohn, 2006). This two-part study relied on…

This report examines the status of college and university practices in skills areas that are important to preparing students for careers and the workforce. Some of these practices address the priorities expressed by Ohio businesses while other practices require modification to reflect current workforce demands. Beyond the assessment of current…

This article describes how out-of-work miners are engaged in the Empowering Education Initiative, a unique alliance between Country Music Television (CMT) and community colleges in Appalachia. The initiative, which includes a website and a series of country music concerts, is changing the conversation in the Appalachian region, giving hope to…

This Sixth Condition Report represents a snapshot of a moment in time. It focuses on critical enabling conditions and initial implementation steps for a strategically chosen subset of the action steps embedded in the Task Force's full slate of recommendations. As such, this report serves four essential purposes: (1) It identifies a selective set…

U.S. strength in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines has formed the basis of innovations, technologies, and industries that have spurred the nation's economic growth throughout the last 150 years. Universities are essential to the creation and transfer of new knowledge that drives innovation. This knowledge moves…

This is the first in a series of Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) playbooks intended to assist companies, higher education institutions, private philanthropies, membership associations, professional societies, government agencies, and other stakeholders seeking to understand the potential value of investing in coordinated strategic,…

When one hears the word "college", the first image one might have is of ivy-covered buildings on a tree-lined campus. The thing is, this image is largely inaccurate, and everyday it becomes further removed from reality. It belies the fact that less than 20 percent of today's college freshmen fit the traditional profile--that is, young…

Recognizing that higher education, including community colleges, four-year colleges, and research universities, cannot help drive economic growth in their states unless students' academic success is linked to the needs of the marketplace, governors and state policymakers are beginning to move beyond their focus on getting more students to get…

The "National Dropout Prevention Newsletter" is published quarterly by the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Preparing for the Demands of the New World Economy (Patrick J. O'Connor); (2) Connecting At-Risk Youth to the High-Performance Workforce (Patrick J. O'Connor); (3) Butler…