There’s a lot of justified hand-wringing going on as we look at the economic devastation wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic and related job losses. I’ve read many pleas for major infrastructure and jobs programs that would put people back to work.

And while such programs might be necessary in the short term, if we stop there, we’ll be no better off than we were before the coronavirus hit.

This recent article in Fortune by Terah Crews, vice president of learning solutions at Guild Education, makes a compelling case for why we as a society must seize this opportunity to prepare people who have lost jobs during this crisis to emerge prepared for better opportunities ahead.

As a high school dropout herself, albeit one who ended up with an Ivy league education thanks to the timely intervention of educators who saw her potential, Crews knows of what she speaks. She points out that the economic recovery after the Great Recession a decade ago left many workers behind. That’s because, she argued, the obsession with creating ‘shovel-ready’ jobs “prioritized short-term security over long-term potential.”

Crews cites Jobs for the Future CEO Maria Flynn,  who said the bottom quartile of Americans without degrees entered the pandemic “weakened by decades of stagnant real wages, automation of low-skill jobs, and the erosion of benefits—including health insurance—as the ranks of gig workers grew.”

While Crews’ article doesn’t offer any specific proposals for avoiding that same mistake this time, she makes a compelling case that:

 “…colleges and universities will need to think differently to provide workers with the training and education they need to navigate an uncertain future. Not every student will want or need a two- or four-year degree or flourish in a graduate program. But as more people come to higher education in the coming months and years, policymakers, faculty, and administrators should all work to ensure those necessary short-term programs can also serve as stepping-stones to something more. It is a moral and economic imperative.”
One place to look for some intriguing solutions is Crews’ employer, Guild Education, which works with employers to make ongoing education a job benefit.  I’ll take a closer look at Guild in a future post.