The WorkingNation advisor discusses how education, policy, and local storytelling can improve job access.
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Show Notes:
In this Mission Matters episode, Adam Torres interviews Jane Oates, Senior Policy Advisor at WorkingNation, on workforce trends, education programs, and how employer-driven training models are transforming job placement. Jane shares her experience helping communities tell their workforce stories and outlines what’s next for WorkingNation’s mission.
About Jane Oates
Jane is the Senior Policy Advisor and recent President for WorkingNation. She is a former U.S. Department of Labor official who has played a key role in WorkingNation’s mission to raise awareness about the challenges facing the American workforce. Jane served as Assistant Secretary for the Employment and Training Administration under Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis after being nominated for the position by President Barack Obama in 2009. Prior to her appointment, Jane was Executive Director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education and a senior advisor to Governor Jon S. Corzine. She also served for nearly a decade as senior policy advisor for Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Jane began her career as a teacher in the Boston and Philadelphia public schools and later as a field researcher at Temple University’s Center for Research in Human Development and Education. She received her B.A. in education from Boston College and her M.Ed. in Reading from Arcadia University.
About WorkingNation
WorkingNation is a storytelling organization that seeks to galvanize the public will and mobilize critical resources to mitigate the growing employability gap in America. Advancements in technology, globalization, and longevity are profoundly changing the way our society operates, leading both to enormous progress and to a disruption of the very nature of employment.
Through original content and partnerships with a coalition of engaged stakeholders – including corporations, NPOs, thought leaders, philanthropists, policymakers and local governments – WorkingNation draws attention to the gravity of the current technological, economic, and demographic challenges being faced globally, and highlights the promise of solutions that will help create a world-ready U.S. workforce and a thriving economy.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on BR Guest to apply. All right, today I have Jane Oates on the line, and she’s a senior policy advisor over at Working Nation.
today’s episode with Jane is. Part of our Milken Global conference coverage series where we bring you the best of attendees, of VIPs, of speakers, of panelists, all the above that were at the conference. thing, first, Jane, welcome to the show. Thank you, Adam, so much. Alright, Jane, so we got a lot to talk about today.
So we’re gonna get into the impact of economic conditions on the workforce. IE where are the jobs? Uh, so we’ll get into that. We’ll get into, you know, what, what you think job growth is gonna look like. really just thinking about, examples of education and training programs like, are getting people placed in quality jobs.
But before we get into that. Uh, I’d like to start off with the Milken Global Conference. I know you were there this year. Um, have you been in the past? Is this the first time, like, like, talk to me on how you, you know, originally got introduced to the conference. Yeah, not my first time. I was introduced by the Working Nation CEO Art Bill, who started in his professional career with Mike Milken at Drexel Burnham.
So I’ve been to the conference. Oh, wow. Yeah. And so I’ve gotten to know, Milken a bit. And all the Drexel folks through art and, uh, probably my, I would say fifth or sixth time at the conference. But everyone is unique and this year was spectacular. I mean, really deep dives on the economy. The. And on the o the flip side of that really warm and wonderful sessions with people like Jason Sudeikis who talked about kindness.
So you go to that conference and you get the who’s who of the economy, and also like a sweet, you know, a sweet taste of some other things. Every time I’ve been there, there’s been an example of, , you know, kind of non-economic stuff that just like tears your heart and Jason Seg didn’t disappoint this year.
Hmm. if you recall, I know you’ve been going for, you said five or six times you’ve been, when, roughly when was the first time you went? Do you remember? If not, no big deal. Oh. Not to put you on the spot, but I wanna say, I wanna say probably, 2018. I, I can figure this out ’cause I’m thinking when I started with Working Nation, I think 18 was my first time.
Wow, that’s amazing. And so, and the reason I ask that, by the way, is I like, you’re a veteran here in terms of, , in terms of this, I interviewed some newbies, uh, that were there for the first time, but I’ve been there now going on, uh, I think this will be my fourth year, third or fourth year at one of the two.
And, uh, well, you’re a veteran too. Well, yes, but the, but the buildup. Like the buildup and like the, every year it gets bigger and bigger. The community gets bigger. Not just number of attendees, but just like, I’m like, God, geez, can they get any more, can they get any better? Like, it feels like you’re an island, in my opinion and I with all these amazing like, cool things and just the brain candy of knowledge and things that you can do.
what have you like from the buildup since you first started going? Like what keeps you coming back? So, you know, I, I love his commitment, uh, to healthcare and healthcare innovation. And I always go to many of those sessions, but, you know, he hits on your interest. Whatever your interests are, like, yeah.
At their conference. It was the first time I really did a deep dive on employee owned companies, you know? Mm-hmm. Uh, Leonard Green was doing it at that time, and nobody else that was, so that was probably five or six years ago. Nobody else was doing it. I love the way he talks about Second Chance hiring, you know, like he always has something going around that list.
Populations that are, facing particular barriers to employment. And then at the other end of the spectrum, he has like the best investment tip people in the world, you know? So you get less. So to me, you know, the, it really, you get to see some of the topics and some of the people that are speaking that, you know, you’re a fan girl of, but then you meet new people there and you know, so much like every conference, so much of the excitement is in the hallways and in the interaction.
Mm-hmm. But they build that in, you know, that whole section where they build out the garden room kind of thing? Yeah. You get to really sit and talk to really interesting people that you would never get the ability to be elbow to elbow with somewhere else. Yeah, I love it. Some, some other people, I’m not gonna take credit for this, some other people that I interviewed mentioned.
So I like to say it’s the Super Bowl for me every year. I had some other people say it was like the Disneyland of conferences. I’m like, oh my gosh. And I think the fun part is what you mentioned too, is sometimes like going outside of your, I don’t know if I should say comfort zone, but like area of.
Interest or expertise. So I had some finance people that are like, oh, I’m in heavy into finance all day long. But I wanted to get into some longevity stuff and like other things, right? And vice versa. And so it’s kind of like this little playground of let’s go see. ’cause anything that you watch, it’s gonna be like top, top level.
It’s gonna be vetted. They’re gonna be like the best in their industry. Doesn’t matter where you go. So you can’t really lose. I agree. I totally agree. I mean, it, it’s, you know, it’s a, going to Los Angeles is a trek for a lot of people, and it’s an expensive ticket item. Mm-hmm. You know, it’s a high ticket item.
But boy, I’ll tell you, I would give up three conferences to go to that one. Only because it’s really innovative. You really see innovation and, and you know, he’s very likely, and I think he has a heavy hand in planning this. I don’t think he’s, he just arrives that day and he being Mike Milken, but he’ll have people on the stage who really have never been on a stage together before sometimes.
And it’s really interesting. Yeah. Not explosive, but authentic. Yeah. And, that’s funny that you say that. Nobody else has brought that up really to where it’s like, normally the panels are, I don’t, should I use the word friendly? I mean, and not, and you’re right, not explosive, but people will openly, no, I don’t agree with that, or blah blah, obviously in very respectful way.
And you’ll be like, and I’ll be in the audience like, oh, it’s getting good. Whereas my popcorn, that’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. It’s, it’s great. And, and you can go to everything. I mean, there’s almost, there are very few things that are limited audience. I mean, you go to some of these conferences and half of the agenda, you know, you have to be a partner in a business or you have to be a related to one of the sponsors to go, this is really a pretty little d Democratic conference.
Yeah. thank you for that and let’s, uh, let’s switch it up a bit. So I do wanna get into Working Nation. First off, maybe tell us, start off by telling us a little bit about the organization please. Well, it’s an exciting time for Working Nation. Working Nation is 10 years old and was started by the gentleman I mentioned, uh, art Bill.
Mm-hmm. And, you know, 10 years ago nobody was talking in the workforce and education space about telling your story. Mm-hmm. And he really said. You know, the, that the job market was changing for the better or worse, you know, it was changing and people didn’t know where to go to get the skills that they needed to really be qualified for jobs that were being developed.
So he started this nonprofit media company 10 years ago. Do with hiring myself excluded, hiring like the best talent you could imagine to make videos, to do, written articles, to do a podcast, you know, and, and to, all of us did a lot of speaking at conferences to really get the word out about what are, what are the characteristics of a successful training and education program, and who are some of the players and call them out by name now, you know.
It was an expensive endeavor and Art really did a lot of the funding of it. We had generous funding from foundations, but you know, we sat down probably a year ago and said, how do you scale this? And the answer was really very difficult because we would tell, you know. A hundred stories a year, but there are thousands of stories out there and there were communities that we were missing.
So this year, art decided to donate all of our, uh, video content to Jobs for the future. And they’re going to actually develop a studio where they’ll help local programs tell their own story. You know, learn how to write an op-ed. Learn how with the iPhones, you know, the smartphones. You can take your own video and make your own sizzle reel.
To let people know the good, the outcomes that you’re getting. So, working Nation as of September won’t do any more original content. Everything will be done through this partnership with the studio at, at Jobs for the Future. Wow. What, what an amazing story. And, so speaking of jobs, what do you think, and I mean the economy is tightening.
What, are your predictions for job growth? You know, look, I think job growth is really on a track with, some clarity about tariffs, because you talk about some of the particular sectors, you know, transportation and logistics, construction. Mm-hmm. Uh, manufacturing, they’re really like on pins and needles waiting for the final, you know, verdict.
And maybe it’ll come August 1st now on tariffs and how expensive things will be because they don’t know how to price their goods. So. I think those sectors particularly are gonna be flat, for the next few months until we get some clarity. I think we’re gonna see, continue to see incredible job growth with, healthcare, you know, I mean, and new jobs.
People think doctors and nurses, but health, it, you know, all of that stuff. All of the allied health positions, they’re growing like crazy. Partly because, you know, many more people have healthcare than they have in the past. Partly because the population is aging, and we all know that the, you know, disproportionate amount of healthcare attention happens post 50 when you know you have to have all these, these routines.
Things done. Mm-hmm. So I think healthcare is gonna continue to grow. I think education is gonna continue to grow. I’m really excited about some of the new models like registered apprenticeships for teachers, where you can go from being a teaching aide to a teacher with minimal coursework and having all of your work experience counsel.
I’m excited about that. You know, and you know, oddly, we saw last month the weirdest thing we’ve ever seen in the numbers where a DP, the private sector. Payroll company saw a relative job loss of 33,000, and yet when the BLS numbers came out, we were plus 130,000. Mm-hmm. So that’s a weird anomaly. Um, I think that, the, we’re gonna suffer over the next several months still from the federal job cuts.
And people think those are, think of obviously, first of all and foremost of federal workers. But they forget federal contractors. So all the contracts that have been dropped by the federal government, you know, think of every name, you know, you know, whether it’s Deloitte or whether it’s Accenture, whether it’s Boeing, or whether it’s Lockheed Martin.
They’re all federal contractors, and if their contracts get cut, they cut people. Mm-hmm. So we’re gonna see a lot of volatility, I would say, in the next few months. Hmm. Well, let’s go further into the, examples of education and training programs. mentioned one with the, with the teachers, I believe, or is that a new change in, go, go a little bit further into that.
I’m just curious on how people are getting placed in quality jobs. Yeah, I mean, look, in the teacher role, you’ve always had to go to a traditional teacher college and get a four year baccalaureate degree. Mm-hmm. And even if you were working in a K 12 school district, you had to go back to the very beginning, even though you had been a teacher’s aide or a non-teaching aide, and knew a lot about education.
Mm-hmm. These registered apprenticeships, uh, allow you to accelerate and maybe not take four years to get the bachelor’s degree that you’re required to for the license. And like every other registered apprenticeship program, you are paid while you’re learning. So they continue their job as a teacher’s aid while they’re taking courses.
And some really forward thinking districts have really, uh, put skin in the game, like they have paid for part of the tuition for those employees. I think it’s gonna be, I think it’s gonna be a model that stays and really grows. You know, I think that covers an untraditional registered apprenticeship program.
But we all know that they’ve existed forever in manufacturing and construction. But the growth of them in other sectors is really interesting and it’ll be interesting to see if healthcare. Adopts that kind of model too. That’s similar to education. Yeah. That’s interesting. Yeah. It’ll be, it’ll be, because look, a lot of people don’t wanna work in a hospital that may be a charity care hospital, maybe in a tough neighborhood, just like teaching.
Yeah. So how do you incent people to stay there? So, I’m excited about that. And you know, I’ll, I’ll tell you, there’s some, I’ll, I’ll give you two models that I love that are out of, of the apprenticeship place. You’ve probably heard of Perlis, you know? Mm-hmm. Perlis, uh, started in New York, but is now all over the place, and they.
Take anybody, you know, they’re, they take anybody who’s willing to learn and train them in new technologies, and they have a direct partnership with employers so that they’re training for the specific technologies that the employer has open jobs for. This is, you know, of course it’s successful because people leave the training program successfully.
And then they get placed immediately into a job with one of these employers who they’ve worked with to know that there’s a job opening. That to me, has to be the key to training programs from now into forever. that the training has to be in direct partnership with an employer or group of employers who have, you have the skill sets for specific jobs that are open and in demand, and people can move right from training into them.
that’s gonna be the way of success. To me, training, you know, the old model of, train and pray is dead. Yeah. Yeah, I see that. And I, and what’s interesting too is when you think about shortages and these industries, I feel like there’ll be more and more that come that come about.
Because if we think about, and this is beyond the context of this, of conversation, obviously we could spend a day on this one, but if we think about the, you know, the way some of the higher education system evolved. Versus once upon a time, more of an apprenticeship model. And let’s talk like way back when, right from previous or something you’re talking about we’re, we’re all farmers for the most part, right?
Like That’s right. It was a whole different That’s right. Setup. And we learned on the job and we’re an apprentice and then we grew and then we became really specialized in these different niches. So I can see that like if somebody’s already been working in the school system, there’s, there’s a huge work.
Force there that just aren’t able to be teachers because they can’t, you know, for whatever reason in their life, they can’t just stop and go back and go to all, you know, all these years of school. That’s right. To get back to work, to get back basically to where they’re already at. For some people, obviously I’m generalizing, can see that being in many other fields where maybe a piece of paper and some credentials and some additional, um.
Tooling and, um, you know, education were needed to make ’em be able to do the job, but you know, they’re pro, they’re possibly closer than if they hadn’t been in that system already working. I see. It, it makes, it makes total sense. That’s exactly right. And they have empathy already for the children. Yeah. And they want, they wanna be there.
Yeah. They wanna be there, period. That’s, they wanna be there. That’s exactly right. They love the neighborhood, they’re culturally competent and they live there. You know, they, there, they, they live there and they’re, and I think when you live in a community, you feel differently about the urgency of making sure that the next generation in that community are educated.
I really believe that’s true. Yeah. I agree with that. And I also think that just the level of, you know, pride and other things to be there and to get that increase in pay and recognition and all those things, I mean, I think they all play into, play into it and I think that ultimately uh, flips community.
So I think it’s a great idea. Mm-hmm. Jane, this has been fun. How you feeling? This is really fun. Really fun, Adam, thank you. Uh, well, hey, first off, I, I appreciate you coming on today and connecting and being part of this Milken, conference, global coverage series that we’re doing. And, if somebody wants to follow up, they wanna follow your work, they wanna learn more about Working Nation, do they do that?
So Working Nation is still up and running. Working nation.org is the website. They can read the password, they can see the password, and see everything. And then as they transition, we’ll have, as we transition full-time into JFF studios, then we’ll have that information on, own website. Me personally, you can read my thoughts that are not necessarily always aligned with Working Nations.
Mostly on LinkedIn. Jay notes is, uh, on LinkedIn. O-A-T-E-S. Wonderful, wonderful. And for everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll definitely put some links in the show notes so that you can, click on the links and head right on over and check out the check out. Jane, check out Working Nation and speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and Jane. Thanks again for coming on the show. Thank you, Adam. It was great. Thanks very much.
