Education and Workforce Development

The U.S. is losing its competitive edge compared to countries like China due to its lack of focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.  American companies throughout the entire tech ecosystem consistently face talent shortages.  TechNet supports efforts to grow and strengthen America’s talent pipeline by: ensuring equitable access to digital skills training across occupations; encouraging and supporting American students to pursue careers in in-demand STEM fields, particularly computer science education; and retooling our immigration policies to attract global talent.  TechNet advocates for greater federal investments in education and the workforce to help all American students and workers succeed in a global, interconnected, and technology-driven economy.

In particular, TechNet supports:

• Fully funding STEM education programs enacted in the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.
• Education and workforce development policies focusing on greater access to digital skills and digital literacy training across industries and empowering workers to keep their skills updated and in line with the changing demands and nature of work in the 21st century.
• The expansion of online skills and workforce training programs in order to provide opportunities for underserved communities, particularly those in rural America.
• Including or expanding computer science offerings in high schools and allowing qualified computer science courses to fulfill a core high school graduation requirement.
• Robust and sustained efforts to train and recruit more high-quality STEM and computer science teachers through effective professional development and teacher training programs.
• Promotion of the K-12 Computer Science Framework developed by the Association for Computing Machinery, Code.org, the Computer Science Teachers Association, the Cyber Innovation Center, and the National Math and Science Initiative in collaboration with states, school districts, and the computer science education community.
• Policies that encourage the use of digital content and technology, including access to high-speed wireless broadband and connectivity in the classroom, to provide individualized learning experiences, improve educational outcomes, and teach valuable workforce skills.
• Ensuring that student data is protected, while also providing parents, teachers, and students the ability to access educational tools to promote innovation and technology in the classroom.
• Policies and programs that increase internet adoption at home and digital literacy so that students can complete their assignments and so individuals of all ages can access online training for skilled jobs.
• Education and training in digital ethics and data privacy for STEM researchers from undergraduate through graduate education.
• Promoting a highly qualified, more diverse workforce by ensuring Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), and Tribal Colleges and Universities have the appropriate federal support to offer their students sufficient opportunities in the STEM disciplines, or science, technology, engineering, and math. TechNet also believes the private sector has an important role to play in both supporting and focusing its recruitment efforts on these institutions.
• Increased public/private partnerships with HBCUs, PBIs, HSIs, and Tribal Colleges and Universities to develop broader and deeper curriculum to promote STEM education and careers to create a more diverse workforce.
• Policies and programs that focus on engaging and providing opportunities for underrepresented communities of color and women students and workers in STEM and computer science.
• Encouraging the National Science Foundation to more equitably allocate funding for research with a focus on early childhood and to support research on the factors that encourage or discourage girls to engage in STEM activities, including computer science. TechNet also supports increased funding for programs that help girls learn computer science.
• Tax incentives for employers — especially small businesses — to incentivize significant new investments in the skills of the current workforce.
• Greater use of innovation and data to help workers understand available training and career paths and policies which would make it easier for individuals to differentiate between credentials and search for quality programs that are likely to lead to in-demand and higher-wage jobs. These systems must also be enabled to integrate data across employment, training, and higher education.
• Greater transparency of student career and salary outcomes in America’s postsecondary education system to provide America’s students with accurate information to help attain post-graduate employment opportunities.
• Promotion of increasingly diverse and inclusive workplace environments that support backgrounds and experiences of all types embracing the creation of belonging.
• Apprenticeships and career and technical education programs (degree and non-degree) that advance the knowledge and/or skills necessary for college and career readiness and success in high-demand technical career pathways.
• An emphasis on programs that invest in skills, rather than only credentials.
• Invest in federal workforce programs which provide individuals with access to additional relevant skills training, including online tools and services, throughout their lives, as well as more funding for existing workforce programs focusing on technology and skills.
• Lifelong learning, retraining, and reskilling policies and programs that allow workers to attain the education and skills they need to stay current as jobs evolve and advance their careers.
• Broader work-based training programs, including support for transitional employment which would provide subsidies for time-limited, wage-paid work experiences and skill development.
• Employers and employees should be free to enter into mutually agreeable arrangements, such as predispute arbitration, to resolve employment-related disputes in order to obtain a faster and more cost-effective resolution of such disputes.
• In general, federal preemption with regard to employment-related issues.
• Policies to attract and retain advanced STEM degree students from around the world who study at U.S. institutions of higher education to continue their career development in the U.S.