Since 2021, the United States has seen historic investments in infrastructure, digital equity, and economic development that will have significant implications for the U.S. workforce and labor market. The combined investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), Inflation Reduction Act, and CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS) are estimated to support nearly three million jobs per year over the lifespan of the laws. The success of these investments, however, hinges on a new generation of workers having access to the education, skills training, and economic supports they need to access good jobs and careers in this booming sector.
These workers will inevitably and necessarily include many parents, whose caregiving and family responsibilities play a role in their decision and ability to take advantage of growing infrastructure job opportunities. For these people—referred to here broadly as ‘parents,’ but which include biological and adoptive parents, people caring for grandchildren, siblings, or other family members, and other caregivers—policies, systems, and practices that take their role as family caregivers into consideration in their design and implementation are critical to ensuring their access to the infrastructure jobs available now and those on the horizon.
In addition, ensuring women and mothers, and especially single mothers and Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian and Pacific Islander mothers, have access to these quality infrastructure job opportunities is essential, given the implications of these opportunities for their families’ wellbeing and their children’s chances of success. Women and Black workers are underrepresented in nearly all the sectors that are projected to grow with the BIL, Inflation Reduction Act, and CHIPS investments, particularly among higher-paying sectors. Given the changing demographics of the U.S. workforce, it will be nearly impossible for clean energy and infrastructure employers to find the skilled workforce they need without establishing more inclusive pathways for workers who have traditionally been underrepresented in these industries.
Many of the people pursuing skills training that prepares them to fill in-demand infrastructure jobs will be parents. Research from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research finds that, of the nearly thirty-five million people who hold some college credit but no degree, more than a third (a little over twelve million) are parents of at least one child under eighteen living in their household. Single parents—and single mothers in particular—are the least likely to hold college degrees, and most likely to have earned some college credit but no degree. Many of the people who have some college credit but not a degree are Black and Indigenous parents and single mothers.
These parents are primed to benefit from access to affordable, flexible, and supportive education and training opportunities that lead to quality infrastructure jobs. But for them to be able to do so, we must work to remove the structural barriers that have stood in their way in the past and establish student- and family-centered policies and systems.
Ensuring decision makers understand and are considering the needs of parents in policy design and implementation will play a role in how successful we are at meeting the need for a diverse infrastructure workforce and an inclusive economy. NSC’s engagement with workforce education and training program leaders, policy advocates and researchers, and student parents themselves has revealed that parents in skills training experience heightened basic needs insecurity and challenges related to balancing family, work, and school. While this is not unlike the experiences of parents in degree programs, parents pursuing short-term, career-focused programs at community colleges—especially those that are not offered for credit—are often less likely to receive the same supports or services as students pursuing degrees or credit-bearing programs.
Changing how our postsecondary system and policies conceive of and treat students who pursue non-degree programs and pathways is a first step to building a more equitable system that embraces parents and others who do not fit the traditional college student mold. In fact, research supports the idea that taking a two-generation approach to designing education and training opportunities for parents and their children can result in better outcomes for both—and for society at large.
NSC’s network, including its Making College Work Student Advisory Council, has emphasized the need for a range of improvements to how our social welfare, postsecondary, and workforce development systems support parents in skills training. These improvements include:
In addition, our higher education, workforce development, and career and technical education systems must work to actively expose women and people of color to the infrastructure field as a viable career option, despite it being traditionally male and white dominated. NSC’s conversations with experts, advocates, and practitioners emphasize the need for intentional education and career advising/coaching that presents critical information and guidance to women and mothers of color. This guidance would allow them to make informed decisions and consider pathways that may be outside the “norm” but hold promise for their careers and economic mobility.
As state workforce and economic development leaders put the influx of federal infrastructure dollars to work in their states and communities, they must consider how to encourage a diverse cross-section of residents to pursue training and careers in infrastructure—many of whom will be parents. NSC will continue to explore and encourage ways that skills training policy change can support greater diversification of the infrastructure workforce through its People Powered Infrastructure campaign, including by prioritizing engagement and support of parents and other caregivers. In addition, check out these resources to help guide advocacy and systems change:
