1st Edition
Workforce Readiness and the Future of Work
Workforce readiness is an issue that is of great national and societal importance. For the United States and other countries to thrive in a globally interconnected environment of wide-ranging opportunities and threats, the need to develop and maintain a skilled and adaptable workforce is critical. National investments in job training and schools remain essential in stimulating businesses and employment agencies to collaborate productively with educators who provide both training and vocational guidance.
Workforce Readiness and the Future of Work argues that the large-scale multifaceted efforts required to ensure a reliable and strong supply of talent and skill in the U.S. workforce should be addressed systematically, simultaneously, and systemically across disciplines of thought and levels of analysis. In a four-part framework, the authors cover the major areas of:
- education in the K-12, vocational, postsecondary, and STEM arenas;
- economic and labor market considerations;
- employment, organizations, and the world of work;
- laws, policies, and budgets at the federal, state, local, and military levels.
With contributions from leading scholars, this volume informs high-priority workforce effectiveness issues of current and future concern and concrete research, practice, and policy directions to generate novel insights of a multilevel and system-wide nature.
Series Editor’s Foreword
Richard Klimoski
Preface
Frederick L. Oswald, Tara S. Behrend, Lori L. Foster
Chapter 1: The Psychology of Working and Workforce Readiness: How to Pursue Decent Work
Richard P. Douglas, Ryan D. Duffy, Jessica W. England, and Nicholas P. Gensmer
Part I – Education
Chapter 2: Supporting the Development of Interest in the Workplace
K. Ann and Suzanne E. Hidi
Chapter 3: Preparing Students for the Future of Work: A Formative Assessment Approach
Alex Casillas, Patrick C. Kyllonen, and Jason Way
Chapter 4: Advancing Workforce Readiness Among Low-Income and Minority High School Students
Barbara Schneider, Lindsey Young
Part II – Employment
Chapter 5: Workforce Readiness in Times of Change: Employer Perspectives
Richard A. Guzzo
Chapter 6: The Military as a Source for Civilian Workforce Development
Nathan D. Ainspan, Karin A. Orvis, and Lynne M. Kelley
Chapter 7: O*NET and The Nature of Work
Erich Dierdorff and Kemp Ellington
Part III – Technology
Chapter 8: Technology and Workforce Readiness: Implications for Skills Training and the Economy
Harry J. Holzer
Chapter 9: Data and Technology for Impact Hiring: Two Early Experiments
Darko Lovric, Shanti Nayak, Abigail Carlton, and Mark McCoy
Chapter 10: Identifying and Managing Talent in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Reece Akhtar, Dave Winsborough, Darko Lovric, and Tomas Chmorro-Premuzic
Part IV – Policy
Chapter 11: Education for Workforce Readiness: Findings from Reports of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Margaret Hilton
Chapter 12: Apprenticeships
John S. Gaal
Chapter 13
Credentialing in the 21st Century: Looking Beyond the Event Horizon
James Keevy, Volker Rein, Borhene Chakroun, Lori L. Foster
Prospects and Pitfalls in Building the Future Workforce
Ruth Kanfer and Jamai Blivin
Index
Biography
Frederick L. Oswald is Professor and Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Rice University. His expertise, research, and grants focus on measuring individual differences (ability, knowledge, motivation, personality, interests) in organizational, educational, and military settings. He is the past president (2017-2018) of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), a member of the Board of Human Systems Integration (BOHSI) of the National Academy of Science (2015-2021), and a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, and SIOP. See http://workforce.rice.edu
Tara S. Behrend is Associate Professor in the Department of Organizational Sciences and Communication at The George Washington University. Her work addresses career decision-making in STEM disciplines, and technology-based recruiting, selection, training, and skills development in organizations. She is the editor of The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, Senior Research Fellow for the Massachusetts Institute for College and Career Readiness, a psychometrician for the American Council on Education, and a 2016 Cyber Initiative Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University. See http://wave-lab.org
Lori L. Foster is Professor in the Department of Psychology at North Carolina State University and the School of Commerce at the University of Cape Town. She served as a fellow with the Obama White House‘s Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST, 2014-2016), and as a behavioral science advisor to the United Nations (2016). In her academic role, she oversees the 4D Lab, focused on research at the intersection of work, psychology, technology, and development. In the private sector, she is Head of Behavioral Science at pymetrics. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, and SIOP. See http://4dlab.org
"Workforce Readiness and the Future of Work surveys a wide range of critical person and organization factors that must be considered when designing career and workforce development policies and practice. The text makes a persuasive argument that future career and workforce development policies and practice must embrace the impact technology and automation wields on the landscape of work. Each chapter digs deep into key issues that must be considered when designing strategies for helping youth prepare for the world of work as well as when helping working adults continue developing and expanding their employability skills. The text is remarkable in taking the position that technology can be leveraged to support career and workforce development efforts to help youth and adults gain access to decent high-demand, high-paying work." — V. Scott H. Solberg, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, Boston University, US
"This volume addresses the complex technological and economic forces that are irrevocably transforming the workplace; employment, as we know it, could soon be unrecognizable. Oswald, Behrend, and Foster define the crucial research questions that must be addressed in order to prepare the workforce for these changes. Relying on thought-leaders across disciplines, this volume provides indispensable guidance for policy-makers, researchers, organizations, and individuals. In short, this is the book for anyone interested in understanding how the world of work will be transformed in the coming years – and how to adapt to this new world." — Donald M. Truxillo, Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, Ireland
