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U.S. Department of Education Launches New Initiative to Support Career-Connected Learning and Increase Job Pathways for Young Americans
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced the launch of Raise the Bar: Unlocking Career Success, a new Biden-Harris Administration initiative supported by the Departments of Commerce and Labor to increase and expand access to high-quality training programs to help young Americans pursue jobs in today’s in-demand fields and be prepared for careers of the future. Read more about it here.
Chewy’s savings from automation centers could come to around $60 million a year
According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, online pet retailer Chewy Inc. plans to open more automated fulfillment centers in 2023 to control costs and raise efficiency, which could help the company repurpose certain capital spending, its finance chief said. The automated centers, which need a third less people to ship the same volume, come at a time of surging labor costs and other inflationary pressures that are driving up costs for companies. The company, which had over 21,000 employees and 13 fulfillment centers in December, usually requires about 1,200 people for a manned distribution center. Read the full article here.
National Career Cluster Framework Updated
Advance CTE announced the relaunch of the continued process to update and modernize the National Career Clusters® Framework (the Framework) to better reflect the current and future world of work and act as a common language between education and the workforce. They are projecting a release of a modernized Framework before the end of 2024. More information on the project can be found here.
ED Hosts STEM Summit
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) hosted a “YOU Belong in STEM” summit at its Washington, D.C. headquarters to support and promote science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education across the nation. The convening brought together stakeholders to discuss strategies and best practices for how to implement, at scale, high-quality STEM education opportunities, particularly for learners from marginalized backgrounds. More on the effort can be found here.
Young Job Seekers Focus on Stability
Amid high inflation, a rapidly shifting workforce and layoffs at companies such as Meta and Amazon, many young job seekers entering the workforce are shifting their expectations and priorities to focus more on financial stability and security. Handshake, a networking platform for college students, said that 73% of job seekers identified stability as their top job priority in a recent survey of 1,400 college students. Full story can be found here.
New America Report: Paid, postsecondary work-based learning pilot programs may be an effective tool for improving learner retention
New America recently published case studies of postsecondary institutions that have piloted paid work-based learning programs. This report, “What Everyone Should Know about Designing Equity-Minded Paid Work-Based Learning Opportunities for College Students” highlights the findings from case studies of emerging paid WBL program models across the country to understand the motivation, goals, and design of paid WBL opportunities available at two-year colleges. The findings include implications for state policymakers and college stakeholders in career services, academic advising, and workforce development. The case studies can be found here.
New America Report: Getting Non-Degree Workforce Programs Right at Community Colleges
The New Models for Career Preparation project is about accelerating high-quality, affordable, and equitable non-degree workforce programs at community colleges that lead directly to quality jobs and careers. With support from the Lumina Foundation, the Center on Education and Labor at New America launched the New Models for Career Preparation Project to better understand the design, financing, and strategy principles that go into creating high-quality non-degree programs at community colleges that lead to quality jobs and careers. The project resulted in a 3-part brief series and a policy paper with concrete ideas and examples for ensuring quality across all non-degree workforce programs. Two of the three-part briefs are available and can be viewed here. The third and final one will be published in Q1 2023.
Reshoring and FDI Set New Quarterly Record, on Track for A Record-Breaking 350K Jobs per Year
The Reshoring Initiative Q3 data analysis shows that reshoring and FDI job announcements were at the highest rate ever recorded, about 15% above Q1 2022, the previous record. 4Q 2022 looks strong enough to reach a 2022 total of 350,000+ jobs. Some other top takeaways from the report include EV battery investments making Electrical Equipment the top industry, as well as private and federal entities' continuous investing in skilled workforce, addressing one of the leading barriers to success. The full report can be accessed here.
NPR Report: "America needs carpenters and plumbers. Gen Z doesn't seem interested"
According to data from the online recruiting platform Handshake that was shared with NPR, The application rate for young people seeking technical jobs — like plumbing, building and electrical work — dropped by 49% in 2022 compared to 2020. While postings for those roles, such as automotive technicians, equipment installers and respiratory therapists, saw on average 10 applications each in 2020, they got about five per posting in 2022. In this Jan. 5th report, NPR takes a deeper look at how the narrative regarding these technical occupation is shifting nationwide.
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