The Future of Work

Well before the pandemic, a group of educators and economists saw glitches on the pathway from school to career. Workplaces — increasingly collaborative and digital — needed skills, capacities, and mindsets that job candidates weren’t bringing. For too many job seekers, access to the job market was blocked by inequity, discrimination, and licensing barriers, putting meaningful careers out of reach. And jobs themselves were changing, requiring new leadership skills and candidates who could thrive in uncertainty.

And then the pandemic arrived, to upend and reinvent our workplaces right in front of us. Did the pandemic usher us into a future that was already coming? How can we shape that future so that barriers are lowered and opportunity is broad? How should educators and school leaders prepare their students — and what are the skills that will matter most in the workplaces of today and tomorrow?

Featuring Assistant Professor Peter Blair and Professor David Deming, co-directors of The Project on Workforce; and Harvard Business School Professor Raffaella Sadun.

Resources:

• Project Workforce website
  • New white paper: "Working to Learn: New Research on Connecting Education and Career"
  • Article: "The Skills Lab: Measuring Soft Skills and the Basic Science of Human Potential"
• Peter Blair research site
• Opportunity @ Work STARs (Skilled Through Alternative Routes) Report
• Article: "Community Colleges Can Be Engines of Economic Recovery" New York Times
• David Deming paper: "Team Players: How Social Skills Improve Team Performance"
• Raffaella Sadun paper: (Does Management Matter in Schools?)