The nation is facing unprecedented challenges in helping millions of learners and workers get their lives back-on-track. Impacts of the COVID-19 crisis have been particularly severe for the lower-income people who community colleges specialize in serving, and particularly for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous populations. For this podcast series, When Policy Meets Practice, Jobs For The Future (JFF) teams up with long-time higher education journalist Paul Fain to explore the critical role of education and workforce development policy in shaping the nation's economic recovery and renewal. In each episode, Paul speaks with community college leaders who serve on Jobs For The Future’s Policy Leadership Trust to lift up lessons about which policy approaches are producing results for workers, learners, and employers, and which policy approaches are falling short. The podcast highlights the most promising work in the field, with blunt takes on fast-moving policy questions, ranging from free community college to short-term Pell. Paul concludes each episode with a sense-making conversation with Jobs For The Jobs policy experts.
As the world continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s more important than ever for educational institutions, governments and the workforce to team up and work together to support the collective. Hosted by education journalist Paul Fain and launched by Jobs for the Future (JFF), the show explores the perspectives of policy leaders, educators and other decision makers to discuss the barriers standing in the way of access to adequate education and career development resources.
With blunt takes on fast-moving policy questions, the show is like listening to a passionate political debate dedicated to landing on powerful solutions to some of the biggest issues in America right now. The show covers topics like education reform, racial equity and short-term training policy, taking a constructive approach to problem-solving and supporting people on their career paths.
The episodes are each 30-minutes long, so this is definitely a great option to listen to on your morning commute or while doing household tasks. I would definitely take a listen if this subject interests you or if you work in a related field like education or politics.
Mackenzie Patterson is the Senior Producer & Content Strategist at Quill Inc, and a Toronto-based writer, and journalist. She's always exploring the latest movies, TV shows and wellness trends.