Millions of working Californians are unable to fulfill their families’ basic needs. Automation is likely to eliminate many of their jobs by 2022, and higher-paying jobs that require specialized skills are beyond their reach. Therefore, there’s an urgent need to redesign the state’s education and training systems to help people get the skills they need to secure family-supporting jobs. A series of briefs from JFF examines innovations developed and advanced by grantees of Irvine’s Better Careers initiative that help connect California workers to good jobs and advancement opportunities.

This brief—the third in the series and published after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—examines the need for a more equitable balance of influence and power among the key stakeholders—employers, workers, and training providers—in the workforce development system.