Technology is changing many industries in Massachusetts, and the state needs to improve its workforce development capacity to adapt to this change and help people get better jobs, a new report finds.
The study, from the state’s Future of Work Commission, established by the General Court in 2020, noted that the typical worker in Massachusetts is now expected to hold more than 12 different jobs over the course of their career.
Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Springfield, who co-led the commission, said Massachusetts needs to at least double its current workforce training pipelines to keep up with technological transformation.
“So it’s very important that the training of our workforce becomes more agile, more flexible, more iterative,” Lesser stressed. “Credentials can kind of ‘stack’ on top of each other to develop skills over time as technology evolves.”
The report recommended investing heavily in technical training, apprenticeships, on-the-job and industry-based learning programs. He also stressed the importance of scaling up programs to integrate into the labor market people who are often left behind, such as people with disabilities or who are reintegrating into society after their incarceration.
More jobs require post-secondary degrees or credentials. And while income- and race-based gaps between high school graduation and college entrance have narrowed in recent years, college graduation gaps have widened. .
Lesser workplace disruptions during COVID have had an outsized impact on women and people of color.
“As we look around the corner here, through COVID, at what the future of our economy and workforce envisions, we must continue to focus on equity and inclusion. in all its forms: racial equity, gender equity, and geographic and type of worker equity,” Lesser insisted.
The report found a growing divide between professional workers who can do their jobs in hybrid or entirely remote environments, and frontline and service industry workers who have endured the economic strain of the pandemic. He also highlighted the need to meet the basic requirements for many people to work, from childcare and elder care to housing, broadband and transportation.
Support for this report was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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A growing number of jobs across Missouri require some level of training or education beyond high school, but rural students are less likely than their urban or suburban peers to enroll and complete college.
The rootEd Alliance wants to change that, bringing guidance counselors into school districts to supplement the work that guidance counselors already do. They may focus on post-graduation, work-related, or military bachelor’s opportunities for students.
Hal Higdon, chancellor of Ozarks Technical Community College, a rootEd partner, said he’s grown from counselors at just eight schools to 135 across the state.
“A lot of our rural students are first-generation, so they don’t have a mom and/or dad who’s already gone through the college process; that can seem very daunting,” Higdon pointed out. “What we see is that students with no plans have plans, students with plans even come up with better plans. And then quite a few are going into the military as well.”
Higdon added that college enrollment rates have increased at each rootEd partner school. Enrollment at national colleges was down in 2021 from pre-pandemic levels, but rose 7% at schools with a rootEd advisor.
Noa Meyer, president of the rootEd Alliance, noted that the statewide expansion will serve 15,000 or more students. She explained that learning what’s out there, filling out financial aid forms and identifying the right person takes time and expertise.
“The guidance counselors do a wonderful job helping students with such a wide range of issues they face,” Meyer said. “And as a result, they don’t have as much time to help students with the plans they need to develop for life after high school.”
Higdon pointed out that Missouri faces real labor shortages in all sectors and argued that now is the time for high school graduates to learn skills to get high-paying jobs in their communities. .
“The need for skilled workers, from allied health to plumbing, HVAC, carpentry, advanced manufacturing, it’s all there,” Higdon pointed out. “And these rural students make fantastic employees, so we need to bring them into the workforce not just in Missouri, but in every state.”
Support for this report was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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Union groups are highlighting the vital role education support professionals play in Commonwealth public schools, and they are advocating for better pay and working conditions.
ESPs include paraeducators, caretakers and maintenance workers, bus drivers, cafeteria attendants, security guards, computer support workers, etc. The vast majority of ESPs earn less than $30,000 per year.
Yahaira Rodriguez, a paraeducator in Worcester, said many ESPs live in low-income housing or struggle to meet other basic needs.
“I have a bachelor’s degree,” she said. “Most of these educators are also very, very educated; they even have a master’s degree, they have a bachelor’s degree, they have associates — and we’re not paying them what they deserve.”
The Massachusetts Teachers Association developed what it calls the “PSC Bill of Rights” to demand, among other things, a living wage, affordable health insurance, paid family and medical leave, job security and recognition as educators. ESP’s bill of rights also calls for an affordable way to achieve more education and pay off career-related debt.
Today and Saturday the union is holding its annual ESP conference for professional development and networking.
“It sometimes feels like a vicious cycle, not being able to get out of the trap of earning that unlivable wage,” said Katie Monopoli, a paraprofessional in Shrewsbury with several other jobs and attending a graduate school for clinical mental medicine. health consultant with a specialization in dance and movement therapy. “So I’m taking out loans, which is very anxiety-inducing, of course. Balancing all the jobs and also going to school is a lot.”
Many ESP contracts do not have automatic renewal clauses, 90-day trial periods, or “justified” protections against dismissal. During the pandemic, Rodriguez said, many ESPs lost their jobs.
“If we’re not there to help our autistic children go to the bathroom, or if we’re not there to help our English learners, who’s going to do the job? One person can’t do the job,” said she declared. “We have to do it collectively.”
Disclosure: The Massachusetts Teachers’ Association contributes to our fund for reporting on policy and budget priorities, children’s issues, civic engagement, and education. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
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Education leaders across the state are debating the merits of a bill to change the way schools are funded in California.
Senate Bill 830, introduced by State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond, would end the current system of funding schools based on average daily attendance (ADA) and count enrollment instead.
Erin Simon, assistant superintendent of school support services for the Long Beach Unified School District and president-elect of the California Association of School Administrators, said the current system penalizes low-income school districts where attendance is lower. .
“These districts are already receiving less money for a population that has more needs,” Simon said. “I think we have to do better.”
Experts attribute the lower attendance rates to things beyond the districts’ control, in neighborhoods where families face a lack of transportation, or higher rates of asthma and, more recently, COVID. California is one of six states to use an attendance-based formula.
Carrie Hahnel, senior director of policy and strategy at Berkeley’s nonprofit Opportunity Institute, said the debate over how to fund schools ignores the big picture.
“Moving from ADA to enrollment is not a solution to the declining enrollment crisis,” Hahnel argued. “It could provide a short-term band-aid for some school districts that are really feeling the financial pain that comes with losing enrollment.”
The State Department of Finance predicts a 9% drop in enrollment by 2031, a drop of half a million students, a phenomenon linked to the high cost of living in the Golden State.
Julien Lafortune, a researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California, said Los Angeles had been hardest hit.
“(Los Angeles) County, for example, has seen a 12% drop in the last decade and is actually projecting an even bigger drop, around 20%, in the next decade,” he said. observed Lafortune.
He noted that parts of the Central Valley, Bay Area and Sacramento Valley, which have seen growth in recent years, are now forecasting slight declines. The Sierras and North Sacramento Valley districts are forecasting modest increases in enrollment.
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