#120: WIlliam B. Bonvillian — Author of “Workforce Education: A New Roadmap,” Lecturer at MIT, Innovation and Technology Policy Specialist

Bring It In | The Future of Work, Jobs, and Education

There's a learning problem in America's workforce. Opportunities for workers to develop skills that can lead them down successful career paths are scarce, and often ineffective. 83 cents of every dollar goes towards training for people who already have received some form of higher education, and even then, 59% of workers claim they had no proper training, and simply acquired skills "on the job."

With massive turnover rates and somehow so-called "talent shortages," the current playbook companies are using needs to be shaken up, and that's what today's guest has set out to do.

William B. Bonvillian is a lecturer at MIT in the Science Technology and Society and Political Science Departments, as well as Senior Director of Special Projects, at MIT's Office of Digital Learning. He also served for seventeen years as a senior policy advisor in the U.S. Senate. His legislative efforts included science and technology policy, helping create the Department of Homeland Security, and legislation regarding Intelligence Reform, climate change, and national defense and life science R&D.

He's also the co-author of Workforce Education: A New Roadmap alongside our previous Bring It In guest, Sanjay Sarma. In the book, William dives into the disconnect between the public, private, and education systems that's led to many of the struggles facing our workforce, and what steps we can take at the legislative, educational, and business levels to fix it.

In today's episode of the podcast we got to take a deep dive into William's strategies and hopes for the future of work. This is another one you're not going to want to miss, so with that…let's bring it in!