Two weeks ago we highlighted six of the research posters that were shared at our Further Together conference. This week, we’re highlighting the final six posters. Take some time to review these research posters and if you’re so inspired, reach out to the researchers and presenters to learn more! Our field only advances when we conduct meaningful research that helps us understand practice gaps, identify promising practices and propose innovative solutions for workers and their communities.
Poster # 7 - The Role of Measurement in a Skills-Based Economy
Bharati Belwalker, Gee Rege, Chelsi Campbell | American Institutes for Research (AIR)
The rise of automation, demographic shifts, and the evolving demands of the global economy have created an urgent need to rethink how we connect talent to opportunity. In this new landscape, skills have become the most valuable currency. A skills-based approach to talent management offers a powerful solution, promising to build a more equitable, efficient, and resilient workforce for the future. Skills-Based Economies (SBPs) are poised to become the engine of our future economy, but an engine cannot function without a diagnostic system. For the promise of SBP to be fully realized, we must address a critical, yet often overlooked, component: the thoughtful and rigorous measurement of skills. In the present poster, we discuss the use and potential that skills-based assessments bring to the viability and longevity of the skills-based practices movement.
Poster # 8 - How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact the Future of Work for Older Workers
Amanda Briggs | Urban Institute
With support from AARP, the Urban Institute is conducting research to understand how artificial intelligence is transforming jobs, workplaces, and workforce development, and the opportunities and challenges AI creates for older workers. Older workers are an important population of focus, given they possess many of the technical and durable skills needed for AI success (subject matter expertise, leadership, critical thinking) but face age bias and digital skills barriers that can pose challenges to meaningful integration of this new technology. Initial recommendations include 1) continued investment in and focus on developing older adults’ information literacy, including digital skills and AI literacy, to support increased adoption of AI on the job and in the job search process, 2) employer-provided training and structured time for play with AI tools on the job, and 3) familiarizing older adult jobseekers with AI tools that can help them navigate their career search. This research is focused on implications for older workers and for training providers who are working with older adults. However, our findings are applicable more broadly, as task augmentation and automation become a reality across sectors and work experience level. More information is needed about how to prepare workers and jobseekers so that they can benefit from this increasingly powerful technology – regardless of income, industry, or role.
Poster # 9 - Uses and Applications of Generative AI in Workforce Development
Jacob Hale| Next Level Lab, Harvard University
Tessa Forshaw | Next Level Lab, Harvard University
The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) presents both beneficial prospects and significant challenges for workforce development practitioners working at the forefront. Workers, job seekers, and learners who receive support from practitioners need to understand how AI affects fair educational and employment outcomes for marginalized groups today. The research provides new and applicable insights into frontline practitioners' views on workforce development adoption and its impact through generative AI. The research analyzes five critical areas through survey responses from practitioners across the nation, which include (1) Perceptions of Generative AI, (2) Current Use and Adoption, (3) Barriers and Equity Challenges, (4) Learner Engagement with AI, and (5) Building Future-Ready AI Literacy. The study shows how AI provides support to both practitioners and their learners. The research shows that organizations need to tackle three critical obstacles–access barriers, digital literacy gaps, and systemic inequalities–to achieve inclusive workforce development.
Poster # 10 - Building an AI-Ready Workforce: Lessons from New Jersey’s Life Sciences
Liana Lin & Jessica Starace | John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
In partnership with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, researchers at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey conducted a comprehensive study of Artificial Intelligence’s (AI) impact on New Jersey’s Life Sciences and Technology sectors. This research examined the workforce characteristics and changing dynamics within these two priority sectors of the State’s economy and sought to understand how AI might influence the future of their workforces, particularly regarding occupational demand and skill requirements, and how sector employers could prepare for employment changes due to AI advances. Through a systematic, multi-modal research approach, which included a labor market analysis, literature review, stakeholder and expert interviews, AI exposure assessment, and a strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats (SWOT) analysis, researchers engaged in activities to understand current workforce dynamics, assess the overall impact of AI on these key sectors, and identify actionable strategies to address workforce challenges. This multimodal approach allowed researchers to incorporate a variety of data and stakeholder voices, offering critical, comprehensive context to the complexities of AI’s intersection with workforce dynamics and sector-specific demands.
Poster # 11 - Employing the Future
Erin Conley & Jodi Gonzalez | Blackstone Valley Education Foundation (BVEF)
The purpose of this single descriptive case study was to describe how an externship program in the central United States impacts K–8 teachers' investment in and integration of work-based learning (WBL) practices in the classroom. The need to investigate how best to encourage teachers to buy into WBL is driven by misalignment among teacher pedagogy, industry practices, and current research on teaching and learning. In order to address this misalignment, this study examined how teacher externships or time in the industry helped build educators' understanding of what is needed to succeed in the workplace and their capacity to contextualize learning so that it is relevant, authentic, and connected to the workplace.
Poster # 12 - Job Quality Isn’t Optional!
Brianna Rogers | ReWork the Bay
Jobs for the Future & Pathgroup
ReWork the Bay, with funding from the James Irvine Foundation, launched an effort in May 2023 (“Job Quality Project”) to address job quality for client-facing nonprofit staff in partnership with Jobs for the Future (JFF) and Path Group (“project team”). This initiative aimed to elevate the voices of client-facing staff through participatory research, identify actionable strategies to improve job quality, support organizations in implementing sustainable job quality improvements, and strengthen the workforce development ecosystem by prioritizing worker well-being. This poster presents the 5 key themes that resulted from this action research project giving funders actionable ways they can lean into this moment!
