Raising Job Quality and Skills for American Workers: Policy Brief
Raising Job Quality and Skills for American Workers: Creating More-Effective Education and Workforce Development Systems in the States
Released: November 2011 • Discussion Paper
Related Topics: Employment & Wages, Education, Economic Security, Global Economy, Poverty
Authors:
- Harry J. Holzer • Professor of Public Policy, Georgetown University
To improve the employment rates and earnings of Americans workers, we need to create more coherent and more-effective education and workforce development systems, focusing primarily (though not exclusively) on disadvantaged youth and adults, and with education and training more clearly targeted towards firms and sectors that provide good-paying jobs. This paper proposes a new set of competitive grants from the federal government to states that would fund training partnerships between employers in key industries, education providers, workforce agencies, and intermediaries at the state level, plus a range of other supports and services. The grants would especially reward the expansion of programs that appear successful when evaluated with randomized controlled trial (RCT) techniques. The evidence suggests that these grants could generate benefits that are several times larger than their costs, including higher earnings and lower unemployment rates among the disadvantaged.
This paper won the 2011 Hamilton Project Policy Innovation Prize for the best proposal to create jobs and enhance productivity. Learn more about The Hamilton Project Policy Innovation prize here.
Downloads & Links
Search Papers
Downloads & Links
Related to This Paper
Multimedia
Hamilton Project Updates
A periodic newsletter of events, policy briefs, and working papers from The Hamilton Project.
Print This Page
Email This Page
Bookmark & Share
