In the 1920s, the U.S. promised every American a high school education, in part to meet the needs of an industrializing economy. In the 1950s and 60s, the U.S. gave millions of adults and young people access to vocational training or a college education through the GI Bill as a way to fuel the post-war economy. In both cases, visionary leaders developed bold, new education and training policies to address new economic realities. To meet the unprecedented skill demands of our rapidly changing economy…

Every U.S. worker should have access to the equivalent of at least two years of education or training past high school—leading to a vocational credential, industry certification, or one's first two years of college—to be pursued at whatever point and pace makes sense for individual workers and industries. Every person must also have access to the basic skills needed to pursue such education.

Skills2Compete is a non-partisan campaign to ensure our workforce has skills needed to meet business demand, foster innovation, and grow broadly shared prosperity. We encourage America to address U.S. competitiveness in a way that includes the vast majority of America’s future workers—that is, adults already in the workforce—and the largest portion of jobs in the U.S. economy—that is, jobs in the middle of the skilled labor market which require some training past high school, but not a four-year degree.