Rural America has long been perceived as "left behind" by policies that leave it struggling while benefiting bustling urban cities and suburbs. That narrative holds some truth: rural America has a declining population, along with lower educational attainment and lower workforce participation than urban America. But while rural America…

Wyoming community colleges provide dynamic lifelong learning environments through higher education, workforce development, innovative partnerships, and civic and global engagement that lead to responsible citizenship and economic, social, and cultural prosperity. Planning for the future of Wyoming's community colleges and fulfilling the mission of…

Futures research is gaining increased prominence in educational research and development (Tesar, 2021), and particularly now as we emerge from the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has provided a lever for change and an opportunity for innovation in learning, teaching and assessment (Hall et al., 2020; Jandric et al., 2022; Tesar, 2020). Designing…

Lifelong education has proven to be a significant challenge in the policy arena. The combination of formal education and labor-centered institutions has pressed the development of different mechanisms to understand the role of human capital accumulation in socioeconomic mobility and organizational performance. While the narratives of lifelong…

Public higher education leaders have entered 2024 aided by tailwinds of fiscal stability in many states and a strong national economy, but some challenges of the post-pandemic era remain, including strengthening the value proposition of higher education, building public trust, and meeting changing economic and workforce needs. This paper presents…

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

The education model in which a single teacher instructs a single classroom of students has been remarkably persistent, but teacher shortages, low morale, and poor teacher retention are signs that it's not working well for teachers. Ray Reutzel and Parker Fawson describe how Utah's Center for the School of the Future is seeking to redesign the…

The role of human capital development in the era of globalization, knowledge-based economy, and technological development cannot be underestimated. This is mainly attached to the creative and adaptive capacity of human capital (HC) in bringing multidimensional changes and developments for the individual, organization, and the country at large.…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the future of work by investigating how work can be practiced to meet global sustainability goals. The authors draw from empirical findings from a case of critical design session with university students. The aim of the design session was, on the one hand, to embed sustainability into education and, on the other…

In science education, critical discussions on the engagement of industrial actors in STEM education are scarce. In this study, we take the perspective that industrial STEM education initiatives are an arena for governing STEM education. The aim is to contribute to a critical discussion on the involvement of industrial actors in STEM education by…

The United States has failed to prepare all students for college and their careers. That failure has enormous consequences and has led to inequitable educational, economic, and civic opportunities that are disproportionately borne by Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students and workers. These students' and workers' rates of dropout, remediation,…

Employment training organizations vary widely in how they approach supporting young people as they enter the workforce: Some organizations provide young people with basic skills instruction (e.g., math, literacy, or computer skills), some emphasize specific occupational skills (e.g., project management or mechanical skills), and some help young…

Millions of working Californians are unable to fulfill their families' basic needs. Higher-paying jobs that require specialized skills are beyond their reach, and many entry-level jobs are likely to be automated by 2022, so there's an urgent need to redesign the state's education and training systems to help people get the skills they need to…

A comprehensive picture of the overall vocational education and training (VET) market combined with an updated profile of the VET workforce is essential to informing policy development and workforce planning to ensure the sector has the capacity to meet the skill development needs of industry in a rapidly changing economy. This report presents…

The United States is experiencing dramatic shifts in the skills required of incumbent workers and new hires. While the recent low unemployment rate was generally good news, it also exacerbated a persistent skill shortage in the region's labor force that has been consistently reported by many employers. A McKinsey Global Survey indicates that…