Rebuilding America: Nation needs to retrain workers on massive scale in wake of COVID-19

The future of our workforce is at a crossroads. More than 22 million people have lost jobs or have been furloughed during the pandemic. Millions of them will need to be “re-skilled” because their jobs have significantly changed or were eliminated entirely.

This need is especially urgent for service workers, who have been hit the hardest by the pandemic. New jobs created during the COVID-19 pandemic will require data science, artificial intelligence, analytics, cybersecurity and leadership skills given the new methods companies have implemented to survive this once-in-a-lifetime economic shift.

Millions of people will need to be simultaneously retrained. Think about that for a moment. The scale of such an undertaking may be beyond anything our generation has seen, perhaps even larger than the re-training of millions of servicemen and women returning to the workforce after World War II.

At that time, the president and Congress, appreciating the scale of the response needed, created the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the “G.I. Bill.” The bill provided a means by which millions of veterans received college educations.

As a result, in 1947, almost 50% of college admissions were veterans. In turn, this massive re-skilling of America fueled the post-war boom and the longer-term growth of the American economy. The sharp increase in productivity that was a consequence of the investment in education still characterizes America today.

Nation faces unprecedented challenge

However, the current challenge is different. It is greater in scale, and the skills and occupations needed in today’s economy and the economy of the future are far more diverse.

And the need is urgent. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average length of unemployment today is more than 23 weeks. At nine weeks, most job hunters’ energy and engagement wane, and they begin to lose hope.

The nation faces an enormous risk of losing a substantial part of the workforce, leaving many Americans on the sidelines because of a lack of skills and little of the support and direction needed to acquire them.

Having served as both governor of Mississippi and Secretary of the Navy, I know the importance of workers having the right skills, in the right place, at the right time. I also saw how improving skills could be done at scale while consistently meeting the high levels of productivity and performance we demanded. This is the kind of scale we need today.

Based on that experience, I was honored and excited to take on the role of board chair at InStride. InStride has brought high-quality institutions into an academic network that includes Arizona State University, City University of New York, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Washington, Harvard Business School Online as well as other global universities.

ASU has had success in providing the opportunity for thousands of Starbucks employees to earn degrees, more than 5,000 to date, with 100% tuition coverage.

InStride also has built an online learning platform with the best of content, calibrated to effectively and efficiently meet workers' training needs. The content can be customized to ensure a range of appropriate job training options is available for any corporate partner or organization that wants to emulate this success. 

U.S. needs comprehensive approach

Today, when it is needed most, the nation's workforce is overwhelmed. In 2019, government leaders provided job assistance to 2 million individuals across the country. In March 2020 alone, they received 30 million requests for assistance.

The capacity is simply not there to provide guidance, training and support for such large numbers of workers who are unable to return to their previous jobs. 

Our experience at InStride and my own government experience suggest that our nation needs a comprehensive Re-Skilling of America Act; a long-term commitment that would provide not only money, as vital as that is, but resources for guidance, counseling and support for the unemployed, especially those who are at the lower-skilled end of the service sector.

There is already significant support for initiatives such as the Upskilling and Retraining Assistance Act, which raises the corporate tax exclusion for workforce education from $5,250 to $12,000. Since this amount hasn’t changed in 30 years, this initiative could be made even more robust.

A Re-Skilling of America Act would best be done by placing a priority on workers who need the most skills and matching them with visionary employers. A guiding set of metrics would ensure the best use of the time and investment spent on training and education for the future.

The best news is that it can be done and we know how to do it. Our academic institutions have the education and training capacity. What we need is the will behind a disciplined national plan, customized to the needs of each individual job sector, to bring to bear all the talents of the American workforce to the emerging economy. 

Ray Mabus served as secretary of the U.S. Navy and as governor of Mississippi. He chairs the Board of Directors at InStride.