3 minute read
The Importance of Infrastructure
BY BRAD TURNER-LITTLE
WHEN CONGRESS PASSED the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in late 2021, it made a generational investment in, among other things, our nation’s physical transportation infrastructure. At the time, one in five miles of highways and major roads across our country needed repair; nearly 45,000 bridges needed it as well.
I recall stories of roads cracking and bridges even collapsing under the weight of the many cars, trucks, and buses using them every day to commute from home to school or work, get to the ball field for Little League games, attend worship, or go on vacation or shopping. I know I’ve tried to avoid my share of potholes on my way to work; I’m sure you have too.
Having a usable, reliable transportation infrastructure is essential for our daily lives, and while we often take it for granted, it takes investment of time, money, and resources to maintain it.
The same is true for our nation’s public workforce development infrastructure. You may not be familiar with it, but every state has one or more workforce boards—comprised of business, community, and government leaders—which focus on building and maintaining the infrastructure needed to support business’ talent needs in that region. They work together to discern how new upskilling programs could help businesses compete more effectively, just like transportation planners decide when a new roundabout needs to be added to help commuters get from place to place more easily.
Workforce boards determine how new training programs can help people who have not previously participated in the labor market gain the skills needed to land jobs and build careers, much like how adding a new on-ramp or off-ramp to the interstate makes it easier for people to access. And workforce boards support job-seekers in finding opportunities both for work and skills-building so that they can navigate the workforce development infrastructure to meet their career goals—just like we use Google Maps to find our way to new locations we’ve not visited before.
In Delaware, Delaware Works is the operational name for the workforce board. As it works to build and maintain the state’s workforce infrastructure, it’s focused on four areas:
Prioritize sectors: investing in training workers for the sectors that have high growth and high demand and will make the greatest impact.
Raise the bar: increasing the educational attainment to 60% of the working-age population earning a post-secondary credential.
Increase alignment: breaking down barriers and bridging the gap between training/learning and the needs of businesses.
Expand opportunity: dramatically reducing the gaps in opportunity that exist today based on race and ethnicity.
I applaud the leaders in Delaware for focusing their efforts to not just maintain the state’s workforce infrastructure, but also improve its ability to help talent and business connect more easily.
Investing in our nation’s workforce infrastructure is just as important as our physical infrastructure. Doing so helps all of us get to where we want to go more easily—work that provides for ourselves and our families today and into the future.
Brad Turner-Little is president and CEO of the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB).