The Employer-Educator Partnership That Can Fill U.S. Jobs

Middle-skills workers — those with less than a four-year college education but more than a high school diploma — make up more than 60% of U.S. workers over the age of 25. These workers are the life force that keeps America’s economic engine humming, but, increasingly, as they enter the workforce they find that they are unemployable, even though companies have a growing number of jobs to fill. Much of the problem, the authors report, stems from inadequate collaboration between employers and community colleges, which represent employers’ largest potential source of talent. The authors offer practical suggestions for improving employer-educator collaboration, and they encourage business to take the lead in doing so, because they know the emerging requirements of work and control the most valuable currency in the labor market — jobs.