Unpacking the Opportunity Gap: Incorporating High-Demand Workforce Skills into Education
I recently read a report by Burning Glass Technologies and American Student Assistance "The View from the Schoolhouse: How Middle and High School Educators See the Skills Shaping the Modern Economy". The report examines the attitudes of K-12 teachers on incorporating high-demand workforce skills in the curriculum. The premise is that the modern economy requires 'New Foundational Skills' such as human, digital, and business competencies. We couldn't agree more. This is a topic of critical relevance to Couragion as we've been focused on helping students build these exact occupational and essential skills for years through experiential workplace challenges.
Interestingly, the first round of the research was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the second round was conducted in the fifth month of the crisis. This allowed educators to reflect on how the pandemic has impacted their perspectives. Here are some insights from the report:
Nearly two-thirds of job postings last year asked for New Foundational Skills.
New Foundational Skills increase in value as careers advance and are 49% more likely to be requested in senior or managerial-level roles.
One in four jobseekers claim to have none of these New Foundational Skills.
94% of educators say that COVID-19 has increased the need to teach digital skills.
25% of educators believe their school is doing an excellent job at preparing students for the future.
Nine-in-ten educators believe that career exploration and experiential learning are productive avenues to better teach these skills.
While the insights are compelling, the following two excerpts are paramount to unpacking these educational gaps.
"Opportunity gaps exist for all New Foundational Skills: There is no skill that is taught well as consistently as it is deemed essential."
"The opportunity gaps are larger for black and brown students both because educators in these classrooms value the New Foundational Skills more highly than their counterparts in majority white classrooms and because fewer educators in these classrooms report the New Foundational Skills are being taught well."
Thankfully Burning Glass Technologies and American Student Assistance wrap up the report by offering explicit and actionable recommendations to educators, students, intermediary organizations, employers, jobseekers, and policymakers. I suggest you check out the full report and the infographic.
Couragion provides virtual, inclusive work-based learning experiences to bridge the nation’s education, skill, and labor gaps. Couragion unifies real-world context and relevance to school work, informs student choice and transitions around career and postsecondary readiness, builds student’s occupational and employability skills to ensure they are future ready, and advances student intention, motivation and confidence to pursue rewarding pathways.