MIT Open Learning Workforce Education Project

In 2018, MIT Open Learning launched the Workforce Education Project. Many of the programs Open Learning has been developing in recent years concerns the workforce, including its online courses, MicroMasters certificate programs, xPRO professional courses with employers, J-WEL research, and Bootcamps. We wanted an in-depth understanding of the scope, quality, and efficacy of workforce education as it currently stands, to better calibrate our programs and further research to meet specific, timely needs.

The Workforce Education Project has released an initial report that focuses on problems in the current U.S. workforce education system and in our accompanying labor market information system, the role universities could play in workforce education, new education technologies that could help us meet the scale required for workforce solutions, new apprenticeship programs, and a range of new models and policies that could help in delivering workforce content.

The disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic is going to change work in a number of industries. This preliminary report outlines the status and needs of a national workforce operating in a rapidly evolving technological and sociopolitical landscape. As long-term changes following the pandemic start to emerge in different sectors, employers and policymakers will benefit from embracing flexibility and new ideas.