A growing chasm between the education system and labor markets in the U.S. is making it harder for employers to find and retain qualified talent, and it also is stunting the career and education options available for Americans without a college degree. Minor tweaks will not address the scale of the chasm. If the country seeks to activate more of its homegrown talent to continue innovating and competing on a global scale, it will need an all-hands-on-deck approach to be successful. Incentivizing and empowering employers to be more active in the education system is a critical first step toward achieving quality work-based learning at the necessary scale. The U.S. must re-engineer its systems so that more employers are incentivized and empowered to do this.
