About the Center
The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (Center) is an independent, nonprofit research and policy institute that studies the link between education, career qualifications, and workforce demands. Specifically, the Center conducts research, engagement, and outreach to policymakers and practitioners.
Goal
The goal of the Center is to expand economic opportunity (upward mobility) for all by promoting equity and efficiency in postsecondary education. Our niche, and the reason we believe we can advance this goal, is that we link education and labor markets by mapping, monitoring, and projecting the relationship between education and economic opportunity. We bring the education message to the demand side of the labor market and the demand message to the education side; two key parts to the "opportunity for all" equation that are often in discrete silos of policy and practice.
Core Research
The Center does research in three core areas with the goal of better aligning education and training with workforce and labor demand.
JOBS - Monitoring the supply and demand for educated and skilled labor and linking postsecondary curricula with career opportunities
SKILLS - Mapping the detailed specification of 21st Century Occupational Competencies and their ties to education and training frameworks.
PEOPLE - Identifying the effect of changing job requirements and skill demand on students and the current workforce, with a focus on access and success by race and socioeconomic status
Data Sources
The Center uses data from federal and state statistical agencies, as well as from private data organizations that provide employment projections, population estimates, and other economic indicators. Our projection work includes data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Macroeconomic Advisers (MA), and Economic Modeling Specialists, Inc. (EMSI). The Center also utilizes data available from the National Center for Education Statistics, O*NET (Occupational Network), Current Population Statistics, and the Census.
Products
The Center produces a variety of reports and analyses related to the intersection of jobs, skills, and the workforce. Sample report topics include job demand, job supply, demand by occupation, demand by geography and demography, industry and earnings, cross-sectional description of the importance of various skills in the U.S. economy (national level), state-level concentration of skills, effects of baby boomer retirement on labor demand and educational supply, analysis of green jobs, and access and success in college by performance and socioeconomic level.
Public Policy
The Center seeks to inform and educate federal, state, and local policymakers and stakeholders on ways to better align education and training with labor market demand and qualifications. It also seeks to create tools that enable decision makers to access and customize the data to allow for national, state, and sub-state analysis. We aim to:
- Encourage students to enroll and persist in postsecondary education in order to achieve access in good jobs
- Encourage alignment and transparency between postsecondary education and career opportunities
- Integrate economic and education policymaking so that each informs the other
Leadership and Team
Anthony P. Carnevale serves as Director. He is joined by a team of senior economists with backgrounds in education and labor economics and issues pertaining to social mobility.