Preparing Today's Students for Tomorrow’s Careers

What matters most for the jobs of tomorrow? Postsecondary education and training, according to Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow (pdf), a recent report by the President’s Council of Economic Advisors. The report looks not only at Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) job growth projections but also at more current economic and industry projections that take into account the recent economic downturn as well as enactment of the stimulus package (ARRA).

While the report examines sectors where significant job growth is expected over the next decade (healthcare, education, transportation, construction and clean energy), it makes an even more important overall prediction, especially for those committed to the college- and career-ready agenda: only well- trained and highly-skilled workers will be best-positioned to secure those growing, high wage jobs. In short, the report notes, “occupations requiring higher educational attainment are projected to grow much faster than those with lower educational requirements, with the fastest growth among occupations that require an associate’s degree or a post-secondary vocational award.” The report makes clear that occupations requiring more formal post-secondary education are growing, at a 2 to 1 margin, over occupations that don’t have such requirements, leaving far fewer job options for individuals who have only a high school diploma.

What's changed? Occupations that have grown “require a greater intensity of non-routine analytic and interactive tasks, such as frequent use of mathematics and high executive functioning, than do occupations that have been in decline, which are more reliant on manual and routine tasks.” In the past, good middle-class jobs required only proficiency in well-defined tasks but now the labor market is growing jobs that require skills that enable workers to "flexibly complete tasks that are uncertain and interactive"—skills that typically are acquired in postsecondary education and training.

The Council of Economic Advisors report adds to the growing evidence base, including the notable Brooking Institute paper on The Future of Middle-Skills Jobs (pdf), that all high school graduates need to be prepared for postsecondary education and/or training and that current and future well-paying, middle class jobs require much more education and training than they did a half century ago. Given the realities of the labor market, raising the bar and ensuring all students graduate from high school prepared for college and careers is not a luxury but an urgent necessity if we want today’s students to have access to tomorrow’s middle-class careers.