WorkforceRx

California is in the midst of an ambitious effort to have 70% of working-age adults attain a post-secondary credential by 2030, which, if achieved, would make it the leading state for educational attainment and generate $2.4 trillion in economic gains over time. But today’s guest, Eloy Oakley of the College Futures Foundation, wants the state to go even further. “If we raised attainment -- which r...

“The last study of on the job training in the United States I could find was done in 1999, so we need to really get our act together.” That blunt assessment from WorkforceRx guest Dr. Michael Kirst applies to many areas of post-secondary education -- even fast growing ones such as workplace learning -- that he examined as part of a new study co-authored with his Stanford University colleague Victo...

One in four young people in the U.S. experience a mental health condition or illness, but partly due to a shortage of trained child and adolescent mental health professionals, the majority will not receive the help they need. This leaves the door open for the unregulated offerings of AI platforms, an option that, according to a new study, 60% of middle school and high school students turn to when...

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, registered healthcare apprenticeships are up 43% in the last five years as employers turn to “earn while you learn” models to fill staffing gaps that traditional degree pipelines aren't filling fast enough. On this episode of WorkforceRx, we're going to highlight an institution that's a great example of this trend by speaking with Michael Jones, Director...

"With red beans, you have to tend the pot. It's not an instant meal. It takes time and creativity to get it right, and then a great meal is something to be shared." That's how Louisiana's Commissioner of Higher Education Dr. Kim Hunter Reed describes the state’s approach to workforce development which includes inviting people to the table, listening carefully to identify needs, and working togethe...

It would take a single primary care physician 26.7 hours per day to deliver all the recommended care for the patients that he or she is responsible for. That impossible math is the starting point for a major California Healthcare Foundation report examining why access to primary care keeps falling short, even in a state where nearly everyone has insurance. “In our culture we tend to look at the ne...

Many of the U.S. labor market challenges we discuss on WorkforceRx are shared by Canada, including the need for more skilled workers that are available, particularly in healthcare, skilled trades, and technology. We're going to take a look today at how the higher education sector in Canada is responding to these realities with the help of Carolyn Campbell, president and CEO of NorQuest College in...

What if the daily commute in your car became one of the most productive parts of your day? Today’s WorkforceRx guest, Dr. Linda Ng Boyle of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, is going to help us understand how close we may be to that level of human-machine interaction and what it means for the future of work and mobility. “It's going to be a really dramatic shift for a lot of workers. As more d...

Tech occupations are projected to grow at roughly twice the rate of the overall U.S. workforce over the next decade, yet 87% of technology leaders say they face challenges finding skilled talent. On this episode of WorkforceRx, we're going to take a look at a model for supplying that talent developed by Per Scholas, which provides no-cost, employer-aligned technology training to adults at more tha...

"In many ways, they're worse off than people who had never gone to school at all." That's how Terah Crews describes the 43 million Americans who hold some college credit but no degree because they’re often saddled with debt and lacking economic opportunity. The company she leads, ReUp Education, is focused on reconnecting these “stop outs” to their education journey by working with institutions to...

Surveys of college faculty about the challenges posed by AI show their concerns, understandably, center on academic integrity, but today’s guest suggests the larger challenge to higher ed is happening outside the classroom: AI disruption in the workplace. "If entry-level jobs are being abruptly taken apart by AI, how do we think about what higher ed should be doing to integrate experiential learni...

Market competition and the consequences of federal education policy have fundamentally changed our system of higher education and distorted the values of mission-driven schools. That's the stark reality depicted by Dr. Joshua Travis Brown of the Johns Hopkins School of Education in his book, Capitalizing on College: How Higher Education Went From Mission-Driven to Margin-Obsessed, which we’ll be e...

What characteristics do changemakers in healthcare have and how can the system cultivate more transformational leaders? As provider organizations grapple with a growing number of complex problems -- including physician burnout and increased demand for care -- there’s a growing sense of urgency to find answers to those questions. Our guest today, Dr. Andrea Austin, has been focused on that task, an...

Offering only one degree; developing a cloud computing program in collaboration with Amazon Web Services; working with high schools so students can earn an associate degree before graduation: these are examples of the kind of innovation community colleges must pursue to stay relevant to students and employers alike, according to our guest today, Dr. Pam Eddinger, president of Bunker Hill Community...

“How do we leverage what we have more intentionally to have greater impact in our communities?” That purposeful question is posed and answered in this thought-provoking episode of WorkforceRx by David Zuckerman, president and CEO of the Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN), whose seventy health systems and 1,000 hospitals are committed to improving economic equity, vitality and community health through...

Even though use of artificial intelligence in the workplace has nearly doubled for US employees in the past two years, a recent Gallup poll found that only 22 % of companies have a clear, communicated strategy for integrating AI. On today's episode of WorkforceRx, we’re going to explore how organizations can help their employees adjust to AI disruptions and redefine their value in an AI context wi...

“There are persistent and critical gaps between education and industry that hinder economic advancement and we share a belief that those gaps need to be bridged,” says Julian Alssid, summing up why he and his business partner, Kaitlin Lemoine, created Work Forces, a consulting company that serves stakeholders in those sectors and beyond. On this episode of WorkforceRx, they join Futuro Health CEO...