No Dead Ends: A Policy Agenda Both Sides Can Agree On

Super Tuesday represents the unofficial start of the general election season. Until now, candidates for president and other elected offices have doubled down on hyper-partisan messaging to win their party’s nomination. Today, Jobs for the Future (JFF) is calling on candidates to shift their focus to what really matters to voters: no dead ends to economic opportunity.   

We’re flipping the script by advocating that all candidates running for national, state, and local office make workforce and education policies a top campaign issue for 2024.  Now is also an ideal time for voters to raise their voices and fight for policy solutions to pressing problems.  

For too long, issues that affect people’s everyday lives—like the quality of education and the conditions at workplaces—are rarely mentioned in political debates and neglected amidst “buzzy” political headlines. This disconnect is reflected in recent polling that suggests many people in this country feel unsupported in today’s economy, despite positive job growth and wage gain trends.  

To bring attention to the kitchen-table issues voters actually care about, JFF is unveiling a national education and workforce policy agenda called “No Dead Ends.” It provides a road map for fixing our siloed education and workforce systems and for eliminating the dead ends that millions of workers and learners face at school, at work, and in their lives. 

No Dead Ends envisions a learn–and–work system that places: 

• No limits on the aspirations of learners and workers. 
• No artificial endpoints on career pathways—meaning no credentials with little value in the labor market,  no ceilings on advancing at work, and no withholding of credit and recognition for already acquired skills, competencies, experiences, and credentials. 
• No impossible choices between pursuing opportunities to advance one’s career and taking care of family responsibilities. 
• No harmful risks when making decisions to change directions in one’s work and learning journey, such as pursuing a new skill or entering a new career. 

No Dead Ends is an agenda for the two-thirds of Gen Z students who are worried about taking on college debt for a postsecondary pathway that doesn’t lead to a quality job. They want to build skills while in high school and are asking teachers and counselors to provide better advice on their education and career options.  

Likewise, No Dead Ends is an agenda for the more than half of adults who believe they need to gain new skills to prepare for the impacts of artificial intelligence and other seismic changes to the economy. Experience tells us that they need access to learning and work experiences that blend in-demand technical know-how with uniquely human skills, but the nation significantly underinvests in career navigation, reskilling, and reemployment assistance.  

No Dead Ends is also an agenda for the one-third of adults with a criminal record who face a complex web of rules and regulations that exclude them from pursuing jobs they are qualified for or can learn to do. Individuals like Aminah Elster and Shaun Libby show the career advancement that is possible when policies and systems are redesigned to normalize opportunities for learning and work. But their experiences remain the exception not the rule because our systems create a lifetime of penalties for people with records. 

Additionally, No Dead Ends is an agenda for the 100,000 Americans who have been forced to stay home from work each month because of child care issues. Child care obligations—as well as food insecurity, transportation challenges, unaffordable housing, and other caretaking responsibilities—represent a massive hurdle for workers struggling to access education and job training. 

And No Dead Ends is an agenda for disrupting occupational segregation that is pervasive in high-wage, high-demand career fields, such as information technology (IT). Our research finds that colleges enroll far fewer Black learners in their IT skills training programs than people from other demographic groups. This disparity is sapping employers of new sources of talent and contributing to persistent Black-white wealth gaps.  

All told, No Dead Ends is the policy solution set for how JFF will achieve our ambitious North Star: In 10 years, 75 million people facing systemic barriers to advancement will work in quality jobs.  

As a national, nonpartisan leader, JFF is well-equipped to lead this movement for No Dead Ends. Building on our 40-plus years of experience partnering with policymakers, employers, education and training systems, and community leaders, we have crafted a set of federal and state policy recommendations that are based on what works on the ground and pushes the envelope to bolder innovation. We have a long history of working across the aisle and are certain the policy ideas in the No Dead Ends agenda can provide a shared rallying cry among elected officials — regardless of party affiliation. 

So, what can be done to eliminate dead ends for good?  

No Dead Ends offers four overarching priorities for federal and state policymakers:

1. Empower people with data, guidance, and resources that enable them to navigate their chosen work and learning journeys and flourish throughout their lives.
2. Recognize all the skills, knowledge, and expertise that people acquire throughout their lives, regardless of when and where their learning and development experiences occur.
3. Blur the lines between learning and work systems to foster common purpose among educators and employers and smooth people’s pathways from education to careers.
4. Help people get ahead during times of economic uncertainty and personal adversity.

You can read the high points of JFF’s policy road map for No Dead Ends in this two-pager. Throughout 2024, JFF will release more detailed policy recommendations in each of these priority areas. We will also offer commentary on what we like about the policy planks of candidates, where we see bipartisan agreement to be possible, and what issues need greater attention from politicians.  

We can’t do this alone. We need you to help us eliminate dead ends. Please join us.