Opportunity News: The Power of Apprenticeships and Contemplating the Zombie Skills Gap
•Opportunity Nation shares key stories that explore opportunity-related issues in powerful, provocative ways. Many of these articles and op-eds include new data and research on key economic, educational, social and civic factors that affect upward mobility and community well-being.
As a bipartisan organization committed to working with diverse leaders, organizations and institutions, Opportunity Nation does not endorse all of the opinions or content shared here. But we strongly believe the exchange of ideas and civil dialogue are central to finding common ground and making significant, sustained progress as a society.
Share these links on social media and with your networks. Let’s keep the national conversation going about how we can all work to #ExpandOpportunity to more Americans.
Opportunity Nation
Read a great piece by Forbes about Opportunity Nation’s mission, inspired by ON Executive Director Mark Edwards’ presentation to national business leaders at the Forbes Reinventing America Summit last week in Chicago.
Connecting Youth
Inspiring story in this week’s Providence Journal about Jean Paul Valencia, the first student, perhaps ever, from Central Falls (RI) High School, identified in 2010 as one of the nation’s worst, to be accepted to Harvard University. Read how Jean Paul accomplished this feat and how his once-maligned school helped.
The Power of Apprenticeships
A new nonpartisan website, Republic 3.0, explores why European-style apprenticeships should have a future in the U.S.
Skills Gap
Not sure what to make of this controversial Paul Krugman op-ed about whether the existence of a skills gap in the U.S. is real or not. But he does have us thinking more deeply about the topic. As does this thoughtful response by the National Skills Coalition.
Early Childhood
And a Brookings op-ed out about how to improve Head Start, a program the authors argue is good but could be better, is a worthy read.
Opportunity Nation
Opportunity Nation is a bipartisan, national campaign comprised of more than 350 cross-sector organizations working together to expand economic mobility and close the opportunity gap in America. Opportunity Nation envisions the United States as a nation where everyone – regardless of where they were born – has equal access to opportunity, economic mobility, and success at all stages of life.
