SKILLS BLOG

How students’ and workers’ real-life experiences are shaping policy  

National Skills Coalition (NSC) has long recognized that effective, equitable policies can’t be written behind closed doors. Rather, they must be developed in collaboration with workers, students, and practitioners, centering their expertise and experiences.

Our organizational approach reflects these values: From our 2020 industry recovery panels to our most recent WIOA recommendations, NSC’s policy development and vetting process takes into account the voices of students and workers. As the public overwhelmingly calls for policymakers to support skills training, the real-life experiences of these students and workers illuminate the policies needed to ensure a resilient, equitable workforce system.

That’s why NSC recently held listening sessions with more than a dozen workers and students from 6 states, to ensure they can inform our policy recommendations, especially as we soon will welcome a new administration and Congress.

In these sessions, we spoke to workers like Oklahoma City-born Denise*, who participated in a payroll training program nearly a decade ago.

“[Participating in a job training program] is the most rewarding thing I’ve done for myself,” says Denise. “I wake up in awe because it has changed my life so much.”

She persevered through personal challenges to complete the program, building her English, digital, technical, and administrative skills along the way, and launched herself into a new career. Today, Denise has built an 8-year career as a payroll analyst, and she’s aspiring to do more: Her future career goals include founding a nonprofit organization and becoming a public speaker.

Listening to the experiences of workers is vital to ensure that public policies reflect and respond to real-life issues.

Workers’ sacrifices should be matched by public investments

The overarching theme from NSC’s recent listening sessions is this: Workers are sacrificing and taking personal risks to participate in training programs, and many have also carved out additional time to share their experiences and expertise in policy advocacy conversations. Public policies need to match students’ and workers’ level of commitment by investing boldly in them.

Major themes that emerged from the listening sessions focused on the importance of:

  • Robust earn-while-you-learn models so people can afford to participate in skills training.
  • Clear, transparent career pathways that result in valuable postsecondary credentials and wage gains.
  • Meaningful holistic supports in areas such as childcare, transportation, and mental health that could otherwise undermine participants’ ability to succeed in training and on the job
  • Inclusive partnerships that tap into the expertise of community-based organizations to reach and serve jobseekers
  • Flexible skills training policies that see and respond to both the dreams and the vulnerabilities of their participants.
  • Intentional strategies to help people build the social capital and networks needed to succeed in their chosen occupation

Below, we explore the first few of these themes in more depth. The additional themes will be further described in Part 2 of this blog post, coming soon.

Earn and learn programs: Students and workers cited the stress of trying to balance holding down a job to make ends meet while simultaneously participating in a training program to further their career. Policymakers can ease this high-stress situation by investing in high-quality training programs that provide access to earn and learn opportunities. These programs allow people to apply the skills they are learning in real time while earning a meaningful wage. Models for this approach include paid internships, on-the job training, and apprenticeship programs.

Clear career pathways: Students and workers in our listening sessions emphasized how valuable it is to have well-defined career pathways. They want to be confident that the program in which they are investing their time and energy will result in a relevant credential and a real job with a local employer. And they want to know that their first job will provide stepping stones to further training and advancement. They also fear the consequences when workforce programs are not aligned with local labor market needs. “There is a misalignment of what’s needed in the market versus what’s being taught to develop into a professional for this industry,” said one student. Policymakers can fill this gap by investing in and standing up partnerships that bring industry and training providers together to meet hiring needs.

Transparency and accountability: It’s hard to know what’s “too good to be true,” another student told us. Her skepticism reflects the hard-earned wisdom of many jobseekers who have seen friends and family fall victim to illusory promises or even predatory bad actors. Reassuring these students and workers means implementing policies that collect and publicly share data that clearly spell out training costs and benefits, job placement results, and demonstrated wage gains. One example is making sure that reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) strengthens the quality of the Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL) as an accountability tool that can reward results from training providers and ensure that programs are reflective of the needs and skills of both- workers and businesses.

What’s next?

The feedback shared by our listening session participants like Denise is already helping to shape policy recommendations for the next President and administration. With major education and workforce legislation up for reauthorization in the new Congress, 2025 will provide numerous additional opportunities for students and workers to make their voices heard. Regardless of the type of funding, piece of legislation, or political party that controls Congress it is clear that we need nimble, actionable policies combined with robust investment to ensure that communities have the resources needed to serve workers and businesses effectively.

*Last name omitted for privacy.

Look for Part 2 of this blog post coming soon on NSC’s Skills Blog.