Shalin Jyotishi, Founder and Managing Director of New America’s Future of Work and Innovation Economy Initiative: New Opportunities in the Innovation Economy

One of one of the most significant attempts to spur economic growth and U.S. global competitiveness since the space race was made a few years ago through the CHIPS and Science Act, but many people in workforce development, economic development and higher education aren’t aware of the new opportunities flowing from it. Our guest on this episode of WorkforceRx, Shalin Jyotishi, launched the Future of Work and Innovation Economy Initiative at New America to help create that awareness and help localities prepare to take advantage of those opportunities. “We’re focused on building the capacity of higher education and workforce institutions to be better positioned to respond to economic development and industrial policy investments coming into their communities, especially around the innovation economy and emerging technologies,” he tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. One key example is that the CHIPS Act expanded the mission of the National Science Foundation to include supporting the translation of research into technologies, companies and, ultimately, jobs with an eye on regional equity. “The objective here is to make sure that the entire country is able to come along for the ride and not just the traditional tech hotspots like Silicon Valley and Boston,” Jyotishi explains. Tune in to find out which states are early winners in this expansion of opportunity and what else has been set in motion in the attempt to align federal investment with tech innovation to renew the American middle class.

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Joe E. Ross, President of Reach University: Turning Jobs Into Degrees

For those who can’t afford to leave their job to earn a degree, there’s a relatively new ‘learn and earn’ model that essentially turns a job into a degree program. It’s called the apprenticeship degree, and we’re going to learn all about it on today’s episode of WorkforceRx from Joe Ross, president of Reach University, which is dedicated to growing this approach. As Ross tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, Reach’s first area of focus is K-12 schools where it can offer classroom aides, cafeteria workers and other staff without bachelor’s degrees a pathway to the teaching profession. A typical student might do online seminars twice per week in addition to working fulltime. Not only will this help with the teacher shortage, Ross says, it also increases diversity. “Paraeducators are much more likely to look like the students they serve in a given community than the teachers.” Find out how the programs are funded, how liberal arts courses can be integrated into the workplace experience and what models Reach is developing for the behavioral health sector as this innovation becomes more popular.

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