The video above is a 15-minute "executive version" of a one-hour DVD of the forum’s centerpiece, a provocative Fred Friendly Seminar on the underlying problems threatening the American Dream for many families across the country. This valuable resource explores the tensions and trade-offs
confronting employers in need of skilled workers and the education and workforce systems that must meet those needs. For information on receiving this DVD, contact info@jff.org.
In September 2005, top corporate, education, and workforce policymakers
came together to address the failure to prepare the nation for
the demands of the knowledge-based global economy of the 21st
century. Through a dynamic, interactive forum, town hall-style
gatherings, and addresses by prominent policymakers, 100 business
and government leaders discussed how we can restore the “American
dream.” Participants emerged with concrete strategies and
resources to help provide more young people and adults with a
better education and better careers.
The two-day event, called The
Fate of the American Dream: A National Forum on Strengthening
Our Education and Skills Pipeline, was hosted by Jobs
for the Future and sponsored by a number of corporations also
committed to improving the education and skills pipeline: Ford
Motor Company Fund, Citigroup Foundation, Johnson & Johnson,
Aetna, BellSouth, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Fidelity Investments,
Manpower, and The McGraw-Hill Companies, with support from the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The forum concluded with JFF’s release of Education
and Skills for the 21st Century: An AGENDA for ACTION. The Agenda looks at how the nation can take advantage
of today’s best innovations and new models to rebuild and
extend the education pipeline for tomorrow’s needs.
JFF’s Action Agenda specifies a number of concrete action
steps—for employers, the education system, workforce development
agencies, and state and national governments—in two major
areas:
- Accelerate Achievement and
Learning: Create and support
rigorous, high-performing learning institutions that
enable young people and adults to achieve at high levels
and advance rapidly to earning postsecondary credentials.
- Promote Lifelong Learning: Create and finance a workforce preparation system that
yields the skilled workforces our businesses and communities
need to thrive today and in the future, continuously
advancing individual skills to meet the shifting demands
of today’s workplaces.
Highlights of the forum included:
- Keynote
Address: Patty Stonesifer,
President of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- “Town Hall” Discussion
with Corporate & Government Leaders: Facilitated by David
Gergen, Harvard Public Service
Professor of Leadership and asst. editor of US News &
World Report. Panel included Rep.
Howard P. Buck McKeon (R-CA),
Chair, House Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness; Maria Tukeva, Assistant
Superintendent, DC Public Schools, and Principal, Bell Multiculural
Senior High School; Darla
Marburger, Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Policy, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education,
U.S. Dept. of Education; Melanie
Holmes, Senior Vice President,
Manpower Inc.; and Guy
Patton, President, Fidelity
Outsourcing Services Inc.
- Strengthening America’s
Education and Skills Pipeline in the 21st Century. This Fred Friendly Seminar, moderated by Charles Ogletree of
Harvard Law School, explored the tensions and trade-offs confronting
employers in need of skilled workers and the education and workforce
systems that must meet those needs. Panel included Stanley
S. Litow, Vice President,
IBM Corporation; Calvin
Butts, President, SUNY College
at Old Westbury, and Pastor, Abyssinian Baptist Church; David
Wessel, Wall
Street Journal; Jeanne
Shaheen, former Governor of
New Hampshire and Director, Institute of Politics, Harvard; Jerry Jasinowksi,
President, Manufacturing Institute, National Association of
Manufacturers; and others.
- Presentation of the Arthur H.
White Making a Difference Awards,
recognizing four extraordinary individuals from organizations
in Los Angeles, CA, San Jose, CA, Hartford, CT, and Boston,
MA, who have improved the lives
of people in their communities.
Download Forum Resources
Welcome Letter
Forum Agenda
Opening
Address
William H. Donaldson,
27th Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Drawing on 40 years at the highest levels of business, government,
and academia, Donaldson opened the forum by declaring that “the
skills pipeline is leaking badly, and at great and growing cost
to individuals in our labor force and, of course, to the business
and government institutions of our economy. It is ultimately,
in my view, an unacceptable cost for our entire society.”
Keynote
Address
Patty Stonesifer,
President and CEO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Stonesifer, who leads the foundation’s mission to improve
access to advances in global health and learning for all people,
addressed its reliance on “partnerships to prepare every
child in America for college work and citizenship. . . . In our
efforts together to create an education system that prepares every
child in America for college and work, we have to make the most
of all of our strengths.”
Biographies
of Forum Speakers and Panelists
|
Education and Skills for the 21st Century: An Agenda for Action 
