WCER Researcher Argues For A Nuanced Approach To Workforce Training

August 30, 2016

"It's the idea that sluggish job and economic growth is solely due to a failed higher education system — that idea itself has huge gaps" — WCER Researcher Matt Hora in WisContext.

From the article:

Matthew Hora, a scientist with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, focuses on the concept of a "skills gap" and how it influences the growing political arguments about the value of liberal-arts education and vocational job training. He co-authored the book Beyond The Skills Gap: Preparing College Students For Life And Work, due out in November 2016 from Harvard Education Press. In the book, Hora and his UW colleagues dissect the prevailing narrative about the skills gap, which goes something like this: Post-secondary education is oriented too much on the humanities and the theoretical side of science, producing graduates without practical and technical skills that employers in manufacturing and the skilled trades desire, resulting in unfilled jobs and sluggish economic growth.

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