LATEST ON GREEN JOBS

“ANEW OPPORTUNITY” FOR ONE IRONWORKER

Brittany Williams is on her way to earning $43 per hour as a union ironworker. But she has taken a very long and hard road to get there. That road weaves through homeless shelters and even prison before she noticed an unusual flyer. Apprenticeship & Non-Traditional Employment for Women (ANEW) was looking for women who wanted to learn construction trades. On top of specific job skills, ANEW has taught Brittany and her classmates basic education and life skills to help propel them along their new career paths. 

ANEW has trained women for nontraditional jobs for 30 years. It is part of Washington State’s GreenForce Initiative, one of eight programs nationwide that receives funding from JFF’s GreenWays initiative. 

Read Brittany’s story and learn more about this exciting program. Read more . . .

PINK TO GREEN TOOLKIT: ADDING A GENDER LENS TO GREEN JOBS TRAINING PROGRAMS

While the emerging green economy promises to add well-paid, career-track jobs, many green jobs are still considered nontraditional occupations for women. JFF’s GreenWays initiative has produced a new toolkit, written by Wider Opportunities for Women, to help training programs enlist women as well as men, and break through age-old patterns of occupational segregation. Tools are now available that help workforce development providers improve their outreach and recruitment of women; assessment and case management for women; and critical skills training for job readiness. JFF will release additional tools later this year. Read more . . . 

REAL-TIME LABOR INFO A BOOST TO WORKFORCE PARTNERSHIPS

Workforce partnerships can benefit greatly from real-time labor market information, which draws on current information and signals from the labor market to help improve the understanding of hiring trends and employer demand. Myriam Milfort and Jeremy Kelley demonstrate the power of real-time LMI in JFF’s latest action brief, which was developed for JFF’s GreenWays initiative as a resource for green jobs training programs. The brief shows how job developers can use LMI resources to better understand local economies and help prepare workers for and connect them to jobs in high-demand industries. Read more . . .

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MORE ON WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

HOW MUCH MONEY IS “ENOUGH”?

People need postsecondary credentials to earn enough to support their families. But how much is "enough"? Preparing for the BEST is a guide to understanding what families need to be economically secure, what jobs and wages would help them reach those levels, and consequently what credentials and training are necessary to get these jobs. The core of this guide is the Basic Economic Security Tables, developed since 1995 by Wider Opportunities for Women, which prepared this guide for JFF's GreenWays initiative. Geared toward helping women identify best green career paths, the guide and its tools are invaluable for all workforce development organizations that help low-income workers plan careers. Read more . . .

A REAL-TIME LOOK INTO THE IT JOB MARKET

In a real-time labor market brief from Credentials that Work, JFF forecasts an 8 percent increase in IT job opportunities by 2016. By combining real-time labor market data with projections from traditional employment sources, JFF gauges how many jobs are available today across 17 IT occupations, how much they pay, which employers are hiring the most, and what skills and certifications they are looking for. 

Skill and certification requirements are most relevant for postsecondary institutions: They can respond by offering the courses and degrees that lead to jobs in these occupations. This helps their students to land jobs after graduation and employers to meet skill demands. Read more . . .

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HIGHER ED

FINANCIAL AID—HOW FEDERAL POLICY IMPACTS STUDENT SUCCESS AND HOW STATES CAN RESPOND

 Financial aid is critical to helping many low-income Americans access and succeed in higher education. But federal financial aid rules frequently constrain the ability of institutions to innovate to improve the odds of student success. A recent JFF convening brought together policy and financial aid experts to identify federal financial aid rules and regulations that act as barriers to innovation—and to vet potential strategies for removing these barriers without creating significant unintended consequences. Aid and Innovation by Katrina Reichert captures these experts’ recommendations and provides further analysis of recent research. Read more . . .

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FEDERAL POLICY UPDATE

WIA REAUTHORIZATION

This summer, JFF is paying close attention to discussions around the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act. In June, the House Education and Workforce Committee considered a bill that would strengthen the role employers play in designing and implementing the nation’s workforce system and encourage the establishment of regionally based workforce areas. We are concerned, however, that the bill eliminates dedicated funding for disconnected youth and eliminates successful programs like YouthBuild. The House is expected to consider the bill in late summer or fall. Read more on why this legislation is critical to JFF’s work. 

ABILITY TO BENEFIT

As part of its FY2013 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill, the Senate included a provision to restore eligibility for federal financial aid to individuals without a high school diploma if they can prove what is know as their “Ability to Benefit” and are co-enrolled in a career pathways program. This provision still needs House approval and the President’s signature. JFF and its partners are weighing in with House members in support of this provision’s inclusion. Read why the timing of this provision is critical in JFF’s work in Adult Basic Education. 

RACE TO THE TOP

JFF recently joined with other national education and civil rights organizations to help craft recommendations to the U.S. Department of Education that would increase the focus on low-income students in the competition for Race to the Top funding. Our recommendations would also maximize outcomes and promote accelerated learning designs for underserved youth, including off-track and out-of-school youth, so they are prepared for and succeed in college and careers. Read more . . .

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JFF IN THE NEWS

• Jul. 9: A 2-part PBS series (top video) by ed reporter John Merrow details how an “early college” school district enables all its students—including hundreds of former dropouts—to take college courses, with inspiring results. 
• Jun. 29: A Huffington Post article by KnowledgeWorks’ Byron McCauley highlights student achievement data from 270 early colleges nationwide a decade into the Early College High School Initiative, managed by JFF. 
• Jun. 20-27: The Pathways to Prosperity Network, a collaboration between JFF and the Pathways to Prosperity Project at Harvard University, received coverage by the AP, Education Week and The Washington Post. The Network helps build academically and technically rigorous career pathway systems for high school and college-aged students. 
• Jun. 14: Gloria Mwase tells the listeners of Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ-FM) why Americans should care about low-skilled adults and how to improve their literacy. She was joined by Jane Fleming of the Erikson Institute and Betsy Rubin of Literacy Works in Chicago. 
• Jun. 4: Education Week includes JFF’s Students at the Center initiative in a discussion of what’s new in educational neuroscience research. JFF’s recent publication Mind, Brain, and Education reviews the latest research. 

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ON THE ROAD

Aug. 8, TexBEST: A Workforce Literacy Summit, San Antonio, TX: 

• Gloria Mwase will discuss the needs of lower-skilled adult learners and how Texas and other states can best cater to them (1:30-2:00 p.m.) 

SEE YOU ONLINE!

Talk to us and see what’s new in #edreform, #highered, and workforce development (#wkdev) on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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