The Urban Institute hosted a panel discussion identifying the opportunities and challenges to supporting career advancement to middle-skill jobs. Recent government and philanthropic investments have focused on career pathways, frameworks for systems and programs to help low-income adults and youth reach middle-skill jobs. Yet, the emphasis of policy, practice, and research is often on succeeding in the first step on a career pathway, not on job and career advancement. That first step might only allow people to find an entry-level job with wages that cannot sustain a family. During this panel, policymakers, practitioners, and researchers explored how workers can move beyond this first step on a career pathway and into a middle-skill job.

Speakers

• Brenda Dann-Messier, Rhode Island Postsecondary Commissioner; former Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education, US Department of Education
• Jaime Fall, Director, Upskill America, Aspen Institute
• Harry Holzer, LaFarge S.J. Professor, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University
• Yvonne Lau, Dean of Academic Affairs and Career Pathways, Instituto del Progreso Latino
• Jennie Sparandara, Head of Workforce Strategy, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• Margery Austin Turner, Senior Vice President for Program Planning and Management, Urban Institute
• Demetra Nightingale, Institute Fellow, Urban Institute (moderator)

Materials

• Agenda
• Speaker biographies
• Building Workforce Success

• Fulfilling the Promise of Career Pathways: Strategies that Support Career Advancement

For inquiries regarding this event, please contact [email protected].

Support for this event is provided by JPMorgan Chase & Co. For more information on the Urban Institute’s funding principles, go to www.urban.org/fundingprinciples.

Photo by Fizkes