Resource Library

The tools in this packet will help states describe and discuss competency-based education. These tools can be used to educate legislators, members of higher education commissions or boards, staff at institutions or systems, students and the general public.

“Now more than ever, many Americans find their employment and financial status precarious and their prospects for upward mobility limited. The public health and economic crisis caused by COVID-19 has exacerbated and exposed the nature and extent of this precarity for large segments of the workforce. These immediate challenges arrive in the context of changes in the structure of work, such as automation and increases in nonstandard work arrangements, that create additional concerns for the future. To address these issues, policymakers, worker advocates, employers and employer groups, and researchers are focusing not only on job availability but on job quality. Definitions of what constitutes a “good job” vary—including adequate wages, benefits, stable schedules, worker protections, positive work environments (e.g., nondiscrimination and equity policies), potential for advancement, and other features. In this report, we pull together different prominent definitions of job quality into one framework and review the evidence on links between elements of jobs and worker well-being (e.g., higher income, better health, greater job satisfaction, job promotion or career progression), focusing on elements of jobs that might support worker mobility.”