Resource Title:
Barriers to Workforce Education and Training

There are five key barriers for policymakers to confront when establishing and expanding their workforce development systems statewide; and they concern issues of program access, program implementation, data use, funding (both for programming and individuals), and system alignment and coordination. This Policy Outline outlines each of these barriers, how they limit career development for individuals, and considerations for policymakers looking to alleviate them.

For more detail and examples from states addressing these barriers, see this report, “Approaches to State Workforce Development Systems.” Additionally, this 50-State Comparison provides state-by-state data on education’s role within each state’s workforce development system, how each identifies high-demand occupations and the state financial aid provided to support workforce education.

This resource was created in conjunction with the Connecting Education and Work Toolkit.