This week, the Business Roundtable (BRT) released a report detailing the organization’s approach to ensuring the competitiveness of the U.S. workforce. The report draws on interviews with over 30 experts in education and workforce development, including NASDCTEc’s Executive Director Kimberly Green and Associate Executive Director Kate Blosveren. The report, Taking Action on Education and Workforce Preparedness, identifies five priorities for achieving the group’s objective:
- Fully adopt and implement the Common Core State Standards
- Encourage students to study and pursue careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)
- Develop more effective teachers
- Expand access to high-quality early learning programs
- Ensure that postsecondary education and workforce training programs align with employer needs
The report offers a wide range of policy solutions for each of these priorities and includes  recommendations for the CTE community. For instance, the report is supportive of competency-based learning models as a way for students to better demonstrate mastery of skills and knowledge. It also promotes skills-based assessments, and incentives for completing credentials that are industry-recognized and valued by prospective employers. CTE programs across the country continue to be excellent models for how these goals can be achieved.
BRT also encourages policy makers to include the expansion of pathways between education and careers through the reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. This legislation has historically served as a catalyst for many of these policy recommendations and aspects of it, such as Rigorous Programs of Study, have been successful models in helping students transition from the classroom to the workplace.
The full report can be found here.
Steve Voytek, Government Relations Associate