The pandemic has caused a major economic shift for businesses and workers. Countless companies have had to quickly upskill their workers, equipping them with the skills they need to pivot to digital or remote services.
As a result, the importance of efficiently and effectively training and onboarding workers with the right skills for the job has become an increasingly critical.
National Skills Coalition’s latest report, It’s Incumbent on U.S.: Leveraging federal policy to maximize investment in incumbent worker training and business’ pipeline development, offers recommendations to Congress on how to address this pressing issue including:
- Creating a new Federal Incumbent Worker Training Fund under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to provide dedicated resources to states to fund partnerships between employers, education and training providers, and other stakeholders.
- Creating new “21st Century Extension Partnerships,” aligning workforce and economic development strategies. These partnerships should provide technical assistance to small and medium-sized employers, coordinate funded training for businesses in the same industry, and efficiently encourage companies to adopt latest industry methods and technologies.
- Leveraging changes to the tax code to empower private investment in worker training for both new hires and the upskilling of existing workers.
