Overview

Business Roundtable launched The Springboard Project to develop innovative recommendations to change the way the United States approaches training and education so that American workers prosper in the 21st-Century’s evolving labor market.

The Issue

Declining earnings and job instability plagued American workers well before the recession began because of low high school graduation rates, poor college completion rates and inadequate levels of education. While American workers remain the most productive in the world, the country risks losing that edge if we don’t foster opportunities and the expectation that workers must continuously upgrade their skills throughout their careers.

• Globally, the United States ranks second-to-last among developed nations in postsecondary completion rates.
• Seventy-three percent of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ projected fastest growing occupations require some level of postsecondary or vocational credentials. Furthermore, the occupations requiring the lowest qualifications are the least secure.

Recommendations

1. Create Incentives to Build a Better Educated and Trained Workforce
Increase postsecondary education and training attainment rates to meet market demand and provide personal opportunity by rewarding institutions and individuals.

2. Develop Nationally Recognized Workforce Certifications and Credentials
Empower students and workers by creating nationally portable workforce skill credentials that are credible to educators and valued by employers.

3. Communicate Timely and Consumer-Friendly Information to Workers
Provide valuable labor market and related education information in ways that are easily accessible, understandable and timely.

4. Bring 21st-Century Innovation to Education and Training
Reinvent the delivery systems of postsecondary education and training to get better and more cost effective outcomes for more people.

5. Unlock the Value of Community Colleges and Two-Year Institutions
Build on the untapped potential of community colleges and two-year institutions to encourage more people to embrace postsecondary education to revitalize local economies.

6. Foster Lifelong Learning
Encourage a new mindset that values lifelong learning as an essential priority for personal and national success.