Topic: Workforce and Education
Education and the Workforce
Trends, Readiness and Preparation
A thriving workforce is at the heart of SREB’s mission to improve education and help states build robust economies.
Technology promises seismic shifts in the jobs of tomorrow. SREB is committed to helping state leaders find solutions to the challenge of preparing children, youth and adults for a changing workplace.
Recent SREB commissions have addressed how schools and colleges can prepare students for the world of work. Our analysts monitor data on educational attainment and workforce trends, and our school improvement programs help schools adopt high-quality career pathways.
Dual Threat: Report and state profiles >
The coronavirus pandemic has sped the loss of low-skill jobs to automation by five years. And those low-skill jobs vulnerable to automation are also hardest hit by economic impacts of the pandemic. We’ve updated our workforce outlook brief and state profiles for 2020.
The Pandemic’s Dual Threat for Vulnerable Workers
Accelerated automation and post-pandemic impacts could displace millions
The COVID-19 pandemic presents a dual threat to vulnerable workers in the South. Accelerated automation and unemployment potential due to COVID-19 could impact the lives of millions.
COVID-19 Impacts on Child Care Providers and Families
Higher Costs, Lower Enrollment Threaten Availability
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed—and exacerbated—challenges affecting our nation’s child care system. Many child care operators have struggled financially as they deal with shut downs, lower enrollments and increased costs.
Partnerships to Align Education and Careers
Report of the Commission on Strategic Partnerships for Work-Ready Students
This commission report offers a vision of education connected to local careers and shows how to make it a reality through partnerships and policy. With 11 recommendations to help states build strategic industry sector partnerships, the report covers policies, funding and building the capacity of educators. It also spotlights innovative solutions from around the nation.
Designing a Ready Workforce
Opportunities for state leaders to align ESSA, Perkins V and WIOA funds
To support states as they finalize their new Perkins V and WIOA plans and consider updates to their ESSA plans, SREB reviewed a sample of states’ existing plans and identified six ways states have missed opportunities in the past to align work funded by the three federal statutes. For each missed opportunity, SREB provides questions for policymakers to consider and gives examples from states of well-aligned plans.
The SREB Region’s Economic Outlook
The Potential Impact of Automation and AI
As companies continue to incorporate new technologies, making machine learning and robotics common in almost all workplaces, more and more working adults need to adapt to computerized work activities. Many need to move into new jobs raising their skill levels, or they will be out of a job altogether. This policy brief examines the ways automation and artificial intelligence will impact the workforce and encourages states and industry leaders to act quickly to prepare employees for the workplace transformations.
Unprepared and Unaware
Upskilling the Workforce for a Decade of Uncertainty
This report examines how technology and automation are changing the job market — and what states can do to prepare adults for the new workplace. It analyzes shifts from low- to middle-skills jobs, details current education levels and offers recommendations for retooling adult education programs.
Workforce-Driven Financial Aid: Policies and Strategies
Essential Elements of State Policy For College Completion
The rapidly evolving workplace has created a shortage of skilled and educated workers in many fields, leaving essential jobs unfilled and millions of adults unqualified for them. This policy brief summarizes statewide strategies to support financial assistance for students in programs designed to address workforce needs. It includes suggestions for states that are evaluating, or considering creating, workforce-driven financial aid policies.
Three Federal Statutes, One State Plan
Coordinating ESSA, Perkins V and WIOA to address rapidly evolving education and workforce needs
This policy brief examines strategies to align state plans for three federal statutes, the Every Student Succeeds Act, Perkins V and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, to address rapidly evolving education and workforce needs and the steps states can take to streamline their K-12, CTE and workforce development systems.
A Unified Statewide Vision
Aligning ESSA, Perkins V and WIOA Across the Lifespan
The reauthorization of three federal statutes — the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, the Every Student Succeeds Act and Perkins V — has given states the chance, and an unprecedented flexibility, to align all three in powerful ways. This brief includes questions that state legislators and other policymakers can ask to determine how to best implement them as one coherent system.
Adult Education Attainment
SREB Fact Book Table 7
High school diploma, bachelor’s degree, 25 to 44 years, broken out by race/ethnicity and gender, 50 states and four regions
More Unprepared Than We Thought
Adult educational attainment
Low-skilled workers are being left behind as technology shifts the workforce toward the middle-skills level. Educators and policymakers will need to reach these adults with education and training to fill plentiful, well-paying middle-skill jobs in their states. This fact sheet summarizes trends and state policy concerns.
Postsecondary Attainment Goals
in SREB States
| State | 2019 Attainment Level |
Goal | By |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 45.1% | Add 500,000 high-skilled employees | 2025 |
| Arkansas | 43.6% | 60% | 2025 |
| Delaware | 47.9% | none | none |
| Florida | 52.8% | 55% | 2025 |
| Georgia | 52.8% | 60% | 2025 |
| Kentucky | 49.4% | 60% | 2030 |
| Louisiana | 48.1% | 60% | 2030 |
| Maryland | 55.9% | 55% | 2025 |
| Mississippi | 44.4% | Reach the national attainment level average | 2025 |
| North Carolina | 52.1% | Ensure that 2 million, age 25 to 44, have earned a postsecondary degree or credential | 2030 |
| Oklahoma | 46.5% | 70% | 2025 |
| South Carolina | 47.6% | 60% | 2025 |
| Tennessee | 46.8% | 55% | 2025 |
| Texas | 47.9% | 60% of adults ages 25-34 | 2030 |
| Virginia | 57.4% | 70% | 2030 |
| West Virginia | 42.6% | 60% | 2030 |
Bridging the Computer Science Education Gap
Five actions states can take
The Report of the SREB Commission on Computer Science and Information Technology
SREB’s Commission on Computer Science and Information Technology offers five actions for states and schools to help more young people — especially girls, black and Hispanic students, and students from low-income families — learn computer science and explore and choose careers in computing fields.
Credentials for All: An Imperative for SREB States
SREB’s Commission on Career and Technical Education offered eight actions states can take to build rigorous, relevant career pathways. Supported by policies and practices described in the report, these actions can help states increase the percentage of young adults earning valuable industry and postsecondary credentials.