Vocational education and training - VET

Companies have recognized that skills-based practices are a powerful solution to challenges that have intensified since the pandemic. Employers have struggled to find the right candidates for important open positions and then keep the talent they hire. Through a skills-based approach, companies can boost the number and quality of applicants who apply to open positions and can assist workers to find more opportunities to advance internally, which can help employers improve retention. It also helps communities by creating more and better job opportunities for a broader, diverse pool of workers.

Interest in the field of career and technical education (CTE) has experienced a resurgence over the last decade, as the global economy has grown increasingly competitive while students have continued to leave school underprepared for well-paying twenty-first century jobs. Together and separately, the education and workforce sectors have sought to address these challenges and better prepare students for viable economic futures. The results have been many new, innovative programs at both the secondary and postsecondary education levels that seek to give students technical training for specific careers, general training to prepare them for the workplace, and work-based learning opportunities where they can develop connections to employers and the workforce. While there are still many under-researched areas in CTE, this paper attempts to capture the evidence that has emerged—identifying areas where there is more evidence as well as areas where gaps in evidence still exist. The studies that have been conducted on CTE have demonstrated that it shows promise, but it is imperative to continue building evidence, particularly where there is policy interest and momentum but little data. Doing so will help demonstrate how those programs and models serve students and ensure that the continued scaling up of CTE is supported by a rigorous evidence base.  

This paper begins with an overview of the issues in the education system and the labor market that have led to the current revival of CTE. It argues that the skills today’s employers need are not the ones schools are providing. The paper continues with a description of how various policies have fostered the growth of CTE. In the next section, it provides details on the types of programs and institutions that offer CTE, and the evidence base to support each of them. The paper provides evidence on the effectiveness of CTE at different educational levels, and for specific subgroups, including students with disabilities, and by gender. Further, the paper provides an overview of the available evidence to support different kinds of programs offered at both secondary and postsecondary education levels, touching on the amount of evidence available in each area and the level of rigor used in the studies that generated that evidence. 

The paper concludes by suggesting that while CTE instruction at the secondary and postsecondary levels could bolster students’ economic mobility by helping them gain postsecondary credentials and obtain higher-paying jobs, there are challenges involved in turning that promise into reality. Investments in evidence-based practices can give CTE programs a better chance at success.

At a glance
During the pandemic (2019–22), the US labor market saw 8.6 million occupational shifts, 50 percent more than in the previous three-year period. Most involved people leaving food services, in-person sales, and office support for different occupations.
By 2030, activities that account for up to 30 percent of hours currently worked across the US economy could be automated—a trend accelerated by generative AI. However, we see generative AI enhancing the way STEM, creative, and business and legal professionals work rather than eliminating a significant number of jobs outright. Automation’s biggest effects are likely to hit other job categories. Office support, customer service, and food service employment could continue to decline.
Federal investment to address climate and infrastructure, as well as structural shifts, will also alter labor demand. The net-zero transition will shift employment away from oil, gas, and automotive manufacturing and into green industries for a modest net gain in employment. Infrastructure projects will increase demand in construction, which is already short almost 400,000 workers today. We also see increased demand for healthcare workers as the population ages, plus gains in transportation services due to e-commerce.
An additional 12 million occupational transitions may be needed by 2030. As people leave shrinking occupations, the economy could reweight toward higher-wage jobs. Workers in lower-wage jobs are up to 14 times more likely to need to change occupations than those in highest-wage positions, and most will need additional skills to do so successfully. Women are 1.5 times more likely to need to move into new occupations than men.
The United States will need workforce development on a far larger scale as well as more expansive hiring approaches from employers. Employers will need to hire for skills and competencies rather than credentials, recruit from overlooked populations (such as rural workers and people with disabilities), and deliver training that keeps pace with their evolving needs.

Over the past decade, millions of Americans without a college degree emerged from the recession in jobs that were low-wage, insecure, and lacked benefits like paid leave. We are seeing the result of these low-quality, tenuous jobs in the massive unemployment rates resulting from the shock of the pandemic. Everyone is hurting, but unemployment for someone with only a high school diploma or some college experience is almost twice that of a person with a bachelor's degree or higher.

We need a better way for people who don’t have bachelor’s degrees to access stable, well-paying jobs emerging from this economic crisis.

Skills development must be a shared purpose, embraced and supported by employers, employees and society at large.

This brief highlights lessons from the City Colleges of Chicago Centers of Excellence model, which has redesigned each of the system’s seven campuses as a “college-to-career center” and consolidated academic programs in high-demand industries at particular campuses.

In a series of virtual bilateral workshops held from February to April 2021, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and their partner ministries in seven countries – Costa Rica, Ghana, Israel, Italy, Russia, South Africa, and USA – discussed the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Vocational Education and Training (VET), employment, and youth. GOVET (German Office for International Cooperation in VET) asked policy makers, researchers, and practitioners to share their experiences, fi rst lessons learned, best practices, and response strategies. This publication documents the outcomes. The contributions range from hands-on practical reports to in-depth VET research findings, from rather analytical perspectives to policy consultancy and strategic ideas.

Corporate America wants to frame all this as a “labor shortage.” But that’s not what’s really going on. In reality, there’s a living wage shortage, a hazard pay shortage, a childcare shortage, a paid sick leave shortage, and a health care shortage – and American workers are demanding an end to all these shortages. Or they won’t return to work.
They deserve it.

In both Canada and the United States, immigrants are a large source of labour supply with training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In Canada, adult immigrants accounted for 44% of all individuals aged 25 to 64 with a university degree in a STEM field in 2016, compared with 24% in the United States.

By 2031, 72 percent of jobs in the US will require postsecondary education and/or training. Between 2021 and 2031, there will be 18.5 million job openings per year on average, and some 12.5 million of these annualized openings will require at least some college education. After Everything: Projections of Jobs, Education, and Training Requirements through 2031 includes a national overview of job projections and their educational requirements across industries, occupational clusters, and detailed occupational groups. These latest projections demonstrate the central role postsecondary education plays in preparing the workforce of the future.

It is time to rethink how we connect local talent to careers and provide more options for people to access high-quality jobs. In the U.S., apprenticeships have a long history of being limited to skilled trade occupations such as electricians, plumbers, and construction workers. These are relatively high-paying jobs, and they remain important for the success of downtowns, particularly as federal infrastructure funding hits the streets.  

What is an apprenticeship?

Apprenticeships combine long-term, paid, work-based learning opportunities with structured educational curricula to ensure that the learner gains both education and hands-on experience in a profession or occupation. Apprenticeships are most suitable for jobs that require a mix of hands-on experience and conceptual foundations learned in the classroom. They can be an attractive option for learners who prefer learning by doing, who are seeking paid routes into a profession and/or college degree.

Yet there are many other industries and occupations concentrated in downtowns that are struggling to fill openings and retain workers. Finance and insurance, professional and business services, and many government administration jobs could benefit greatly from offering apprenticeship pathways from high schools and community colleges into roles that are currently hard to fill, such as project managers, account managers, cybersecurity technicians, and graphic designers.

how a skills-based approach can help US employers expand talent pools and retain great workers—even through economic uncertainty.

The College Completion Strategy Guide provides clear policy guidance and summarizes the research on strategies to increase college completion.

Recent federal and state policies are creating momentum for combating climate change by tying a clean energy transition to job growth. MDRC and JobsFirstNYC convened 30 stakeholders from locations across the country to discuss how career and technical education and workforce development programs can train people for green careers.

Now more than ever, HR and talent leaders need real-time information on the growing gap between skills available in their workforce and the competencies needed to perform evolving job roles or to drive shifting business strategies.

Roughly 60% of U.S. high school graduates are not fully prepared to take college-level coursework, and racial gaps in college readiness measures have changed little during the past decade. In response, many states have introduced some form of high school-to-college transition interventions. Zeyu Xu, Ben Backes, and Dan Goldhaber review the efficacy of these programs.

The recovery following the Great Recession did not treat all jobs and workers equally nor did it address longer-term problems. Now, our post-pandemic recovery must increase investment in workers’ skills, address wage inequality, and rethink occupational and economic mobility.

COVID-19 is accelerating the adoption of automation—the US needs a workforce training overhaul to adapt.