The coronavirus continues to have a devastating impact on the economy and unemployment rates, and the outlook remains unclear. In March, Virginia sat at 3.3% unemployment before jumping to 10.6% in April, and the commonwealth has yet to fully recover.
Though much is uncertain right now, we can be sure that this pandemic will forever change the economy of Virginia and the nation. Jobs have been permanently lost, and many of those who have lost employment lack the skills or credentials necessary for the jobs that remain. We need immediate investments in education to prepare and reskill our workforce for jobs that will help America and Virginia recover from this pandemic and be stronger than ever.
Before I took office, Virginia was facing a skills gap crisis: 1.5 million jobs would need to be filled by 2022, and most required training beyond high school. Almost 70% of employers were reporting lost revenue and productivity due to hiring struggles. As governor, I responded to this issue by investing in education and working across party lines to build an improved education system and workforce.
We set an ambitious goal to increase the attainment of workforce credentials, including industry certifications, licenses, apprenticeships, and community college career studies certificates and degrees. And we delivered. We became the first state in the nation to pay for community college workforce training programs for students who attain their credentials and the first state to adopt computer science and computational thinking standards in its K-12 curriculum.
A predominant focus was credentialing in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Health (STEM-H) field. The New Virginia Economy Workforce Initiative challenged Virginia’s education and workforce development programs to produce 50,000 STEM-H workforce credentials per year. In my final year in office, 50,361 STEM-H credentials were awarded — a 36% increase compared to fiscal year 2014. STEM-H workforce credentialing is just one example of how I increased the number of job-ready, credentialed workers in Virginia, and it provides an example of how we can shape future educational investments in the post-coronavirus economy.
The pandemic has disrupted our future workforce’s ability to receive the education they need to succeed, including K-12 and higher education students as well as adults who are unemployed or need upskilling. Education and upskilling will be necessary for employment recovery.
In Virginia, industries with the largest projected growth in employment are in the STEM-H fields and will require education beyond a high school diploma. In August, more than 267,000 Virginians were unemployed, and many will struggle to find money to attain the education and training that can help them gain stable employment in the current economy. We have K-12 and higher education students who are unable to access internships, lab learning, high-quality skills- and project-based instruction, and work-based learning opportunities due to coronavirus restrictions.
Our future workforce is waiting for us to invest in them, and they must be prepared for the jobs that will be waiting for qualified workers. Prior to the coronavirus, states across the country had been working hard to invest in educating our country’s workforce. This critical work cannot stop due to the pandemic and in fact is even more important now. We must use this opportunity to reimagine Virginia’s workforce and prepare them through education.
To do so, we must increase investments in education — investing now will help our economy recover faster and be even stronger than before the pandemic. The pandemic highlighted how workforce fields like STEM-H are going to continue to grow. Our state and our country cannot afford to wait to get individuals prepared for the workforce and, even in a tight financial climate, investments in educating the workforce must be made.
We need strong collaboration — state leaders, business and industry experts, and education leaders must work together to build a new, demand-driven workforce system. Collaboration will be required across party lines, and among private and public investments to determine the appropriate workforce solutions that will help us recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
There is little time to waste. To build back a strong economy, we must invest in education now to ensure a bright future is awaiting us once the pandemic concludes. Our children, our economy and our future depend on it.
___
Terry McAuliffe served as the 72nd governor of Virginia.
