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The MassINC Policy Center (MPC) proudly presents two companion reports that unpack Early College’s latent potential to prepare students for careers in our commonwealth’s knowledge economy. These new studies build on previous MPC research examining Early College as a Scalable Solution to the Looming Workforce Crisis generally, and more specifically, how we grow Early College to help address increasingly acute labor shortages in health care.
The life sciences sector is one of the largest advanced industries in Massachusetts and its long-term competitiveness hinges on a strong talent pipeline. Over 90 percent of jobs in the field currently require college degrees, and employers mostly seek workers who have completed challenging STEM majors. Early College is uniquely capable of placing more students on trajectories through this difficult coursework. Drawing on the expertise of more than two dozen leaders in the field, Early College Life Sciences Pathways lays out how state agencies, high schools, higher education, and industry can come together to provide students with avenues to rewarding careers in this vital sector.
The Massachusetts Early College Initiative is currently developing its first expansion strategy. Drawing on MPCs experience studying the potential of Early College pathways in health and life sciences, Opening the Doors to the Jobs of the Future proposes four high-level objectives for this plan. In addition to providing access to all underserved students who could benefit from Early College, the objectives focus on ensuring that all programs provide students with opportunities to explore and enter a variety of career pathways. We also call for designing Early College expansion with an eye toward promoting integration. This will give more high school students opportunities to learn in racially, ethnically, and economically-integrated settings that resemble today’s diverse teams and workplaces.
While MPC bears all responsibility for the analysis and recommendations contained in these two reports, we are grateful to the many partners who contributed to this intensive research effort. They include the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, Agncy, and the Massachusetts Alliance for Early College. We also deeply appreciate the financial support provided by the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation, the Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, the Cabot Family Charitable Trust, and individual donors to MassINC.
As always, we encourage you to help us foster dialogue on pressing public policy questions by passing these new studies along to others in your networks and sharing your thoughts and ideas on these topics. For questions about these reports and the MassINC Policy Center, contact Ben Forman at bforman@massinc.org. |
