3D LMI: Framework for Labor Market Information That Clarifies Learners’ Skills for Both Educators and Employers
With many questioning the value of higher education, WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility is partnering with national experts to find better ways to understand how what students learn in school connects to what employers actually need.
The Challenge
When we try to align education and workforce training with available jobs, we focus on supply and demand: the number of job openings compared to the number of people who graduated with a degree or certificate in a related field. However, the utility of this two-dimensional formula is becoming less useful.
On the supply side, it assumes that learners enter the workforce in a directly related field and that career preparation only happens in academic settings. The demand side calculation is also shifting as it becomes harder to gather job projections data from employers and because employers are focusing more on specific skills than on degrees when they hire.
The current, two-dimensional approach to labor market information is consequential: It shapes the priorities of governments, institutions, and individuals, including by
- the Bureau of Labor Statistics to identify which fields of study have a bright outlook for hiring,
- K–12 institutions and community colleges to prioritize which career-related courses to offer, and
- workforce boards to support unemployed people to find work.
How We’re Taking Action
We are partnering with foundations, labor market information providers, colleges, and workforce entities to generate more actionable, skills-oriented labor market information. We advocate for a three-dimensional approach that identifies the following:
- people who are seeking jobs and their existing skills
- the skills required for available jobs
- the ways employers, educators, and workforce training providers can work together to help people fulfill those requirements
For example, in partnership with the Strada Institute for the Future of Work, WestEd conducted an analysis of efforts in 14 states that are prioritizing access to actionable labor market information. This research identified three promising models and a suite of effective practices that could be replicated to strengthen economic mobility for individuals and build prosperity in local communities.
WestEd also participated in the Stanford Center on Longevity’s The Futures Project on Education and Learning for Longer Lives, which generated a framework for reimagining the future for prosperity across the life course. Together with thought leaders from industry, academia, government, workforce agencies, and philanthropy, the project identified specific changes needed to incentives, funding, and policies to ensure people can continue to renew their skills over a lifetime and multiple career transitions.
If many different experts work together to tackle the challenge of how to generate three-dimensional, skills-focused labor market information, we will be more likely to change underlying policies, provide the appropriate resources, and reshape institutional practices that make it easier for learners to continue to gain new skills across their lifetimes.