Recent Highlights

Roundup of news and opinion writing from Work Shift and The Job.

Author

Paul Fain
March 27, 2025

I’m on vacation this week, mostly. But below is some recent content we’ve published, and this week’s Open Tabs. The newsletter will be back in your inbox next week. Thanks for reading. —PF

Photo by Israel Andrade via Unsplash

Recent News

Two-Year Colleges Reimagine Their Role to Transform Whole Communities

Achieving the Dream, a leading community college reform organization, is pushing colleges to focus on powering economic growth and quality of life, not just student success.

Big Tech’s Certificate Push Gains Momentum in Brazil

The country’s Instituto Caldeira brings together tech companies, local employers, and young people looking to move up into one of 700K tech jobs.

Faced With an Aging Workforce, an Insurer Turned to Teens

Pinnacol Assurance runs one of the only youth apprenticeships in insurance—aiming to broaden the appeal of the industry and train up new talent.

The Mountain West Moves to Build Quantum Careers — Fast

A new industry and education partnership in four western states, backed by federal and state dollars, aims to train 10K workers for quantum careers by 2030.

The Geography of Gen AI? It'll Have a Skyline

With two new studies, the parts of the country most likely to have their jobs changed by AI are coming into focus.

Workforce Projects Eyed as Part of Widening DEI Purge

GOP scrutinizes NSF workforce projects as the White House eliminates education research and some funding for apprenticeships.

As Skills-Based Hiring Grows, LinkedIn Has Yet to Find Its Place

Caught between a social network and a skills platform, the company has yet to capitalize on its vast potential in upskilling and the broader workforce world.

Opinion Writing

To Break the Cycle of Low-Wage Work, Redesign the Workforce System

Many publicly-funded programs funnel people into low-wage jobs with little chance for advancement. Congress needs to rebuild the system for economic mobility, write leaders of Harvard's Project on Workforce.

The Troubling Rise of the Self-Help Bot

Gen AI could be a game-changer in democratizing access to college and career guidance. But it will do more harm than good if tools aren't built with human connections in mind, writes Julia Freeland Fisher.

How Colorado Gov. Polis' NGA Agenda Could Reshape America's Workforce

As chair of the National Governors Association, Polis has a compelling vision for transforming education and workforce development across the nation, writes Alison Griffin, a veteran of Colorado and federal policymaking.

The Real Deal Series

Learning about Quality: Two States on the Front Lines

We talk to leaders in Tennessee and South Carolina about the lessons they’ve learned and their next steps as they build better systems to track and analyze data on noncredit programs.

Expanding Quality Options

A Q&A with Lindsey Reichlin Cruse of the National Skills Coalition about the role that measures of quality play in ensuring that nondegree credentials expand opportunity and boost upward mobility.

Open Tabs

Entry-Level Jobs
The unemployment rate for young Americans (ages 20-24) with a bachelor’s degree or higher now exceeds that of their peers with some college or an associate degree, writes Gad Levanon, chief economist at the Burning Glass Institute. Levanon says possible drivers of this trend include layoffs in high-skill sectors such as tech and finance, increased integration of AI into knowledge-based job roles, and the mismatch between degree production and labor market demand.

Guided Pathways
California has faced formidable obstacles in creating guided pathways for students, Robb Mandelbaum reports for Bloomberg. Seven years ago the state budgeted $200M for pursuing that reform model, which is a whole-college redesign focused on helping students explore, choose, and complete programs aligned with their career and education goals. Mandelbaum writes that it’s unclear how many, if any, community colleges in the state have remade themselves in that mold.

AI Infrastructure
Nvidia and Elon Musk’s xAI have joined a private-sector consortium that is seeking to expand the artificial intelligence infrastructure, mostly in the U.S. The AI Infrastructure Partnership announced last fall includes investments from Microsoft, BlackRock, and the UAE-based MGX as part of a $30B fund to build data centers and energy facilities. The fund, which could be leveraged up to $100B, is part of a broader AI spending spree.

Competency-Based Learning
The new Center for Learner Pathways from Digital Promise will advocate for expanded competency-based credentialing and digital badges, apprenticeships, and industry certifications. It also will seek to build products to support scale in workforce innovation. A report from the center explores a vision for navigating education and career transitions—one that emphasizes adaptability, learner agency, and competency-based approaches.

AI Skills
California announced that it will award $28M in WIOA discretionary funds to 15 organizations that offer career pathway programs aimed at young adults. Those groups will test and demonstrate strategies to improve employment outcomes and reduce persistent economic inequities. They will seek to help program participants access good-quality jobs that offer family-sustaining wages, benefits, predictable hours, and career advancement.