
About Us
The Project on Workforce is an interdisciplinary, collaborative project between the Harvard Kennedy School's Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, the Harvard Business School Managing the Future of Work Project, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

What We Do
​The Project produces and catalyzes basic and applied research at the intersection of education and labor markets for leaders in business, education, and policy. The Project’s research aims to help shape a postsecondary system of the future that creates more and better pathways to economic mobility and forges smoother transitions between education and careers.
OUR PRIORITIES

1

How do we measure foundational skills?
RESEARCH QUESTION
RESEARCH QUESTION
OUR APPROACH
Real experiments in work and learning environments

The share of all U.S. jobs requiring decision-making rose from 6% in 1960 to 34% in 2018
WHY IT MATTERS

2

~2/3 of U.S. workers do not hold a 4-year college degree
WHY IT MATTERS
OUR APPROACH
Create the first open-source system-level infrastructure of data and evidence on the Workforce Development Sector in the U.S.

What is the current landscape of the Workforce Development Sector in the U.S.?
RESEARCH QUESTION

Skillbase
Foundational Skills and Worker Learning Pathways
3

How can online training resources help adults secure quality jobs more quickly?
RESEARCH QUESTION
OUR APPROACH
Build, iterate, and evaluate online aggregator of free foundational skills resources for jobseekers

Adult English language learning increases annual earnings by 56%
WHY IT MATTERS

College to Career
Creating smoother connections
4

Only 26% of U.S. working adults believe their college education is relevant to their work.
WHY IT MATTERS
OUR APPROACH
A Research-Practice Initiative to understand and disseminate effective college-career interventions

Which models improve career outcomes and economic mobility?
RESEARCH QUESTION

The Care-force
The future of healthcare jobs
5

How has COVID-19 changed supply and demand of healthcare roles?
RESEARCH QUESTION
OUR APPROACH
Research partnerships with policymakers and employers to build better healthcare career pathways
OUR APPROACH

Only about 10% of nursing assistants become registered nurses within six years
WHY IT MATTERS