In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, Michael Chui talks to Byron Auguste and Beth Cobert whose professional life is dedicated to fostering a more skills-based labor market. Their focus is on the United States, but their diagnostic can just as easily apply to other countries and regions. Both worked at McKinsey & Company for many years on labor-market issues before going on to work in the Obama administration. Today, Beth is the chief operating officer of the Markle Foundation and CEO of Skillful, a Markle Foundation initiative. Byron Auguste is the co-founder and CEO of Opportunity@Work. They answer questions including the following:
— Who is actually working in the US labor market?
— How does the language we use—“low skill”, “high skill”—cause problems?
— What could a potential future of more of a skills-based workforce look like?
— If employers and people want a skills-based workforce, why aren’t we there already?
— Do we all have to wait until there’s some global skills taxonomy we all use? How does this thing evolve so that it actually becomes practical?

This conversation was recorded in October 2021. To read a transcript of this episode, visit: https://mck.co/BethCobertByronAuguste

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