2010 Transforming the U.S. Workforce Development System: Lessons from Research and Practice

Abstract

If there was ever a time when the United States needed a national skills strategy, it is today. The nation shed jobs at an alarming rate during the deep recession of 2007 to 2009, and despite major government stimulus spending, no leading economist expects the job losses to be restored for many years. Individuals need help coping with this crisis—identifying where the current and new job opportunities are likely to be and how to develop the skills for them—and the current system is not up to the task.The skills crisis, however, goes much deeper than the current economic crisis. Geopolitical changes, ranging from the fall of the Soviet Union to the integration of China as well as other emerging economies into the global economy, have occurred alongside new technology that provides greater integration and exchange across a great swath of the globe. These changes, in combination with global, regional, and bilateral trade agreements, have facilitated new corporate strategies for the global distribution of work and new markets for sales.