Over the last few years, Ohioans have grown accustomed to headlines declaring that the Buckeye State is poised for massive economic growth. Intel announced plans to spend $28 billion on two chip factories in New Albany. Google is investing an additional $2.3 billion on top of $4.4 billion in prior spending. And earlier this year, Honda announced plans to boost funding for three Ohio auto plants to the tune of $300 million.
All this economic development is good news. But there are some looming questions about whether Ohio is prepared to meet the increasing demand for skilled workers. In a 2024 report titled “Reality Check,” Ohio Excels found that Ohioans can expect the creation of a whopping 645,000 job openings annually by 2031, both from new jobs and those that will open primarily through retirement. The majority of jobs available by then—66 percent—will require postsecondary education. But as of 2022, fewer than 53 percent of Ohio’s working-age adults had a postsecondary degree or credential. That’s a worrisome skills gap—and it won’t go away on its own.
To ensure Ohioans benefit from the significant investments being made by companies like Intel, state leaders need to craft policies that better prepare young people for the future. But where should they start? The Career-Connected Learning Coalition, a cross-sector group of sixteen stakeholders dedicated to expanding and improving career-focused education, has a few recommendations. Let’s take a look at three of the most important ones.
1. Prepare students to make informed decisions
Each year, thousands of students graduate with no idea how to pursue their interests or even what they’re interested in. Current law requires every student in grades nine through twelve who attends a public or chartered non-public school to have a graduation plan that maps their academic pathway to a diploma. But these plans don’t require students to think beyond graduation or consider potential careers. And while state law also requires schools to adopt a policy on career advising, many students don’t receive the kind of coaching and support they need to make informed decisions about their future.
To fix this problem, state lawmakers should take a two-pronged approach. First, they should require public schools to provide students in grades 6–8 with a career exploration course. This course should offer students in-depth opportunities to explore career fields; hands-on learning opportunities like research projects and job shadowing; access to interest and aptitude assessments; and personalized career coaching sessions. Providing students with this kind of explicit instruction will help them identify their interests, connect those interests to careers, and pursue the education they need to work in their chosen field.
Second, public schools should be required to assist students in creating an academic and career plan during eighth grade. Plans should include students’ academic and career goals—which they’ll have a much better handle on thanks to the career exploration course outlined above—and the pathways they plan to take to meet those goals. Parents and guardians should be required to approve final plans, and plans should be revisited annually to monitor progress and make adjustments.
2. Offer pathways to in-demand credentials
Ohio leaders have invested a considerable amount of state funding and political capital into promoting industry-recognized credentials (IRCs). This emphasis is understandable, as high-quality credentials can boost earnings and employment. And the state’s efforts have proven successful on at least one front—more students are earning IRCs than ever before. But there have also been some unintended consequences.
IRCs that can be used to qualify for high school graduation are assigned a point value between one and twelve. Unfortunately, this point value system doesn’t effectively identify credential value or encourage students to earn IRCs that will lead to better long-term outcomes. In fact, thousands of students are obtaining IRCs that are poorly aligned with in-demand, high-value careers. Recent data even suggest that Ohio’s urban districts are routing students into less rigorous IRC programs to ensure they receive high school diplomas.
Ohio lawmakers need to revisit and refine the current system to ensure that it reflects real workforce needs, incentivizes credentials with proven labor market value, and supports meaningful career pathways for students. They should do so by replacing the current point value system with one that places IRCs into tiers based on job outlook, associated wages, value to industry and employers, and employment outcomes for students.
3. Track workforce outcomes
Finally, one of the best ways to ensure that students can smoothly transition between high school, postsecondary education, and the workforce is to ensure that leaders in those sectors are working together to solve problems and implement solutions. Right now, state agencies like the Department of Education and Workforce, the Department of Higher Education, the Department of Job and Family Services, and the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation separately collect and analyze a mountain of data on workforce outcomes. But linking these data in a way that effectively drives policy is difficult. And for the average Ohioan, the sheer number of reports and tools being published can be overwhelming enough that they lose their value.
To make Ohio’s education and workforce data more useful to policymakers and the public, lawmakers should establish a cross-agency governing board to oversee a unified data system. This new board should be responsible for identifying and implementing strategies to make data collection and reporting more efficient, supporting initiatives that rely on cross-agency data, and publicly sharing user-friendly data tools like dashboards. This kind of streamlining would go a long way toward supporting data-driven policymaking and helping stakeholders better understand the return on investment of various career pathways.
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Over the next decade, tens of thousands of well-paying jobs will be available. To seize these opportunities, students will need postsecondary credentials and degrees. But according to recent data, there aren’t enough students on those pathways to meet expected demand. Boosting readiness and attainment will take a considerable amount of hard work. But if policymakers act now by bolstering career exploration and planning, prioritizing in-demand credentials, and improving data tracking, Ohio will be on the right path.
