Nondegree

The origin story of Grow With Google, like so many initiatives at the global technology company, begins with data.

Expert panelists discuss the value of short-term programs, employer investments, and skills-based hiring

Long Life Learning offers readers a glimpse into a future where the average working life has no beginning, middle, or end. Contemplating a shift from the educational all-you-can-eat-buffet of college and university to an “as-you-need-it” approach to delivering education, author Michelle Weise explains why and how worker education is overdue for momentous changes.

Millions of American adults who don’t have a college degree but are interested in acquiring more education are facing three dilemmas that undercut their efforts to resume their education. That’s a main takeaway from the latest results of Strada Education’s Center for Consumer Insight’s Public Viewpoint survey, a poll based on a nationally representative sample of more than 17,000 responses that have been tallied between March 25 and Sept. 3, 2020.

You can’t judge a job by its title. The same role can actually require different combinations of skills, called “skill shapes,” depending on the industry, employer and region. People have skill shapes too, formed by their work experience and training. Skills gaps emerge when the skill shapes that employers need don’t align with the skill shapes that local workers offer. Precise learning pathways, attuned to regional workforce demands, can close those gaps by helping people develop a skill shape that snaps into place in the local labor market. This 2-minute video reveals what a job title doesn’t tell you, and how skill shapes analysis can help connect more people with their perfect career match.

In challenging times, the need to forge pathways to opportunity is greater than ever. We’ve created the Strada Resource Center to inform and empower educators, employers, policymakers, and others seeking to respond to COVID-19.

Interviews spotlight efforts to improve the education-workforce ecosystem

There are a million reasons to choose community college—its affordability, its convenience, its access for all. Yet, despite all of these benefits, several stigmas about community college continue to stick.

The analysis by the Strada Institute for the Future of Work and Emsi, a labor market analytics firm, draws on broad data sets about supply and demand in job markets. It is designed to identify skills that matter most, describing "skill shapes" or unique demands in a career field, region or individual. The goal of this approach is to inform the design of more targeted postsecondary training programs, curricula and related microcredentials, the two groups said.

Strada Institute for the Future of Work: Understanding local workforce needs

These days working in a fast-food restaurant or other service-industry job often comes with a new benefit: a college education.