Better Careers for Californians: Innovations That Build the Talent Pipeline

Millions of working Californians are unable to fulfill their families' basic needs. Automation is likely to eliminate many of their jobs by 2022, and higher-paying jobs that require specialized skills, while plentiful, are beyond their reach. Therefore, there is an urgent need to redesign the state's education and training systems to help people get the skills they need to secure family-supporting jobs. Addressing this gap between the skills workers have and the skills employers need requires new and innovative approaches to the education, training, and employment systems that prepare workers and match them with employers. This brief explores the urgent need in California to better train and prepare workers for higher skill and higher-paying jobs, benefitting both struggling workers and employers needing a skilled workforce. It describes barriers that California workers face as they seek career advancement and some of the innovative practices generating better jobs now through the shift in the relationships between employers, education systems, community organizations, and workers that can fuel the state’s growing economy and boost opportunities for workers. It also explores the public and private investments required to impel systemic changes that will lead to more equitable employment outcomes for Californians.

The innovations highlighted in the brief include investment from employers to create new career pathways and the development of new and diverse on-ramps for workers. These are grouped into three categories: 1) innovations that generate substantial investment from employers 2) innovations that construct new and diverse on-ramps for workers and 3) innovations that build and strengthen accelerators and aggregators.

Closing the gap between the skills that low-wage California workers have and the middle-wage skills employers need is a challenging task. Fortunately, organizations, businesses, and workers across the state are addressing the need. Organizations like those featured in the brief, and described below, are demonstrating significant shifts in the landscape of career preparation and advancement.

• Taller San Jose Hope Builders is a community-based agency that connected with employers offering higher-wage, entry-level jobs and learned what it would take to enter and advance in the industry sectors. Hope Builders—with employer input—designed customized skills training aimed at getting youth ready to succeed in positions at these companies.
• Chaffey College is one of the largest two-year community colleges east of Los Angeles whose staff and local business partners developed on-ramp programming at InTech for those needing more time and supports to enter formal training programs. It also developed a paid internship program that was co-funded and created with employers.
• Bitwise Industries and Geekwise Academy together form a tech ecosystem that activates human potential in Fresno, CA where they developed a web developer job readiness program. Bitwise partners with senior software engineers who work with Geekwise cohorts to develop software solutions for clients around the world.
• Jewish Vocational Service is one of the Bay Area’s oldest and largest community-based providers of adult education, teen employment, and workforce development. They concentrated training in a few growing sectors like health care, financial services, and technology and partnered with local employers for work-based placements. This ensures that along with skills training and credentials, participants can get the on-the-job experience they need to secure permanent, well-paying employment.

This brief also contains additional information about the innovations created by the organizations above and many other organizations like the Center for Employment Opportunities, Turning Basin Labs, LeadersUp, California EDGE Coalition, and the San Diego Workforce Partnership.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2019
• Author(s): T. Grobe, J. Vargas, A. Rice
• Funding Source: James Irvine Foundation
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies