Future of Learning and Work
Two recent surveys by Carnegie Corporation of New York and Gallup offer insights into how our education system can better help all Americans navigate job and career choices
Two recent surveys by Carnegie Corporation of New York and Gallup offer insights into how our education system can better help all Americans navigate job and career choices
Over the past few years, Carnegie Corporation of New York has been focused on working to better serve the cradle-to-career needs of our nation’s young people. We’ve identified a need to strengthen opportunities for students to connect with the world of work even before graduating from high school and to expand the range of educational pathways available to them afterward.
But the pandemic-related crisis has broadened the scope of our thinking: What changes to our system are needed to support long-term success for all adults?
We have partnered with Gallup on two surveys to understand the kinds of solutions that Americans want to see. Both surveys are designed to offer insights into the concerns, hopes, and pragmatic needs of those who look to the American education system to help them navigate job and career choices.
Back to Work: Listening to Americans, released by Gallup and Carnegie Corporation of New York in February, solicits Americans’ views of the most important issues facing the nation amid COVID-19; support for a plan that provides jobs, education, and training; and high-priority areas to address with a national jobs recovery program. The survey provides important insights about what is required to confront this immediate crisis, and it also suggests that we need a much more dynamic education system that supports lifelong learning and skills development.
Key Findings:
Family Voices: Building Pathways from Learning to Meaningful Work, a second survey by Gallup and Carnegie Corporation of New York released in April, offers further insights from Americans about the opportunities families want for their children and the postsecondary pathways available to them.
The survey explores how well parents think the American education system is preparing young people for life after high school. It offers new insights into the aspirations that parents have for their children, their perspectives on what will best help them achieve those hopes, and the barriers they face. The results of the survey are sobering, revealing a disconnect between the opportunities families want for their children and the postsecondary pathways available to them.
Key Findings:
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it impossible to miss the fact that our schools, communities, and broader economy are inextricably linked. We are seeing schools distributing food to families. And while we know that schools provide much more than childcare, we see the impact on families’ ability to work when their children are unable to attend school in person. We also see that students need high-speed broadband to learn.
The best way to grow the economy is to invest in people — and that includes a heavy focus on programs that allow employees to earn and learn. It is in the interests of educators and employers to cultivate the capacity of the American workforce, so that companies have the talent they need to thrive, which will in turn strengthen the broader economy.
We hope that policymakers and education leaders will use the findings of both surveys to build a cradle-to-career education system that exposes young people to the world of work before graduating from high school and provides access to a robust array of career-related learning opportunities afterward. It’s going to take a partnership involving leaders from government, education, and the private sector to make that happen.
LaVerne Evans Srinivasan is the vice president of Carnegie Corporation of New York’s National Program and the program director for Education.