Ideagen Radio
Ideagen Radio
Catalyze Impact Ep. 2 - Jane Oates: Bridging Public Service, Education, and Workforce Evolution
Ever wondered how public service can shape a career of profound impact? Join us for a compelling conversation with Jane Oates, Senior Policy Advisor for WorkingNation, as she recounts her inspiring journey from a classroom teacher to a pivotal figure in the corridors of the U.S. government. Jane's roles with Senator Edward Kennedy and the Obama administration highlight the transformative power of public service. She now dedicates her expertise to bridging the gap between education and employment, sharing insights on embracing opportunities and the varied forms public service can take, including community involvement and volunteering.
We dive into the pressing workforce challenges of our time, reflecting on Jane's experiences during the Great Recession as Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training. As the job market faces the continuous evolution of AI and automation, Jane emphasizes the necessity of lifelong learning and educational curricula that align with the needs of employers. Through engaging stories and expert insights, we explore how educational institutions can adapt and how work-based learning experiences can prepare individuals for the demands of today's dynamic job landscape, with AI playing a key role in broadening access to these opportunities.
Our discussion also touches on themes of leadership and inclusion, addressing occupational segregation and promoting the need for diverse leadership in modern workplaces. Jane shares powerful anecdotes about mentors like Margaret Wong and Senator Kennedy, who have shaped her views on bipartisan cooperation and civil discourse. We wrap up with a call to action for global audience engagement, encouraging listeners to contribute to WorkingNation's mission and initiatives. Learn how personal connections and community involvement can drive positive change and help shape a better future for all.
#WorkingNation #CatalyzeImpact #IdeagenGlobal
View More From WorkingNation: https://www.workingnation.com/
View More From IdeagenGlobal: https://www.ideagenglobal.com/
Welcome to IdeaGen TV. I am honored, thrilled, privileged and excited to have with me today Jane Oates, Senior Policy Advisor for Working Nation, here on the Catalyze Impact podcast. Jane, welcome.
Speaker 2:Thank you, my friend.
Speaker 1:It's so great to see you and so great to prepare for what is an interview. That is something that our global audience will really be inspired by, as always, and so I want to drive right into this interview. Jane, most of our audience knows you, but for those that don't, what are some key items and highlights of your career that you can highlight for us?
Speaker 2:Well, it's been a long career, George. As you know, I started as a teacher, then became an educational researcher, then came to Washington and was senior policy advisor for Senator Edward Kennedy, went on to be the SHIO in New Jersey, then was the assistant secretary of labor for employment and training in the Obama administration for the first four and a half years and I did a four-year stint in the private sector for the Apollo Group doing corporate social responsibility. And now I've been with Working Nation for over seven years and Working Nation is a nonprofit media company that tells the stories about work and the transitions between education and work and sometimes back to education to be re-skilled. So it's such a great place to be at this stage in my career because I have all the wealth of all the people who have shared with me over the last 25 years about what they're doing at a local level. So it's been a great, great, great career and one thing has really built on another.
Speaker 1:Well, and it's clear that you're just getting started, jane. I mean, let's be very, very clear on that, this isn't the pinnacle of your career. This is almost, in some odd way, the beginning.
Speaker 2:Well, or the next chapter. I mean, no, I'm not going anywhere. And I think that's important to say to people who have to reinvent themselves, people who have to pivot to different sectors because of things that happen. And I would just tell you that if you had ever spoken to me as a brand new teacher so many years ago and said that I was going to go on and work for the Department of Labor, or that I was going to be a policy advisor, or that I was going to work for a nonprofit media entity, I would have thought you were crazy. So for everybody listening, you have no idea what you can do, what you're capable of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so true, it's incredibly true, and I think it's also a lesson. We focus, as you know, on helping to prepare and inform the planet's future global leaders, and so these insights are also applicable to them as they think about. Where do I begin, and you know. On that note, I'd like to ask you public service. It's such a, you know, let's say, polarized time in the United States, and maybe even everywhere in the world, folks are either on one side or the other on issues and politics and all that, but yet public service is so important. How did that passion for public service, jane, involve throughout your career? How did it evolve?
Speaker 2:Well, I think anybody out there who's had a teacher, been a teacher, known a teacher, you know knows that teaching is an ultimate public service. Working with young people or working with people of any age as they learn something new is such a pleasure, such a gift. So you get more from that, quite honestly, than the people that you serve, just like with any public service. But you know what, George, public service is. I mean, right now, you know, I do public service with my church, I do public service with my community, I work in a food bank.
Speaker 2:I mean it doesn't have to be a job, it can be a passion that you pursue, quite frankly, on your free time and giving back, learning from others. Boy, it never gets old, it's always fabulous. But I don't want to minimize. I do think everybody should have to work in government at some point, whether at the local level, the state level or the federal level, because it gives you an unparalleled peek into what democracy really is, what this country is built on, and you get such an incredible love and appreciation for the people who do it for their entire career. They're the best of this country, for the people who do it for their entire career.
Speaker 1:They're the best of this country. Isn't that the truth? And so, as you evolved in your career, you went from the US Senate to becoming Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training at the Department of Labor. What was the biggest, the most challenging workforce issue that you encountered and how did you address that, jean?
Speaker 2:Well, obviously, if you do the math, I was the Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training during the Great Recession. I came in in 2009, and the country was just turned upside down. The job loss was incredible. You know, the housing crisis people were just really, really afraid. I mean, I think since then COVID would equal that, but during that great recession people were afraid they were never going to work again. I mean, there were days, months, where there were 17 people looking for work for every job that was open. And you asked George such a good question how did I handle it? I mean, it was. The first thing is. You know, we're all empathetic people, so the first thing is your heart breaks.
Speaker 2:I think of Navistar in Indiana. You know, in Indianapolis, when they closed down, they were like the cornerstone of that community. So many people had worked there from the time they were 16, didn't even finish high school and went on to have these great family, sustaining wage jobs with the foundry that was really Navistar there. And I think the looking at those people, meeting with them, talking to them, understanding you know their bewilderment. We tried to give them laptops and they were like I don't want a laptop, I'm a hard worker, I want a job. So that was really difficult and I think when you talk about how did I get through it, I don't.
Speaker 2:You know, nobody solves anything on their own, and that's the first thing people should recognize but what a wonderful group of governors and mayors I had to work with. I mean great people in our administration. But also, you know, I go back to that career staff. I mean my career staff at ETA was, and still is, rock solid. I mean, when you think about the millions of people applying for unemployment insurance, what's kind of strain that was on the state system and of course, then on the federal partnership that supports that system or is supported by that system, depending on the time of day. But the reality is people helped me get through it Wonderful partners, knowledgeable people and we really worked with employers so closely to kind of see what were the. It was the beginning really of what are the skills that you need. You know what has to happen, but it was. It was an incredible period of time and incredible learning experience and just solidified for me that you do nothing alone. You do much better. You solve problems quicker, better and more thoroughly when you work in partnership.
Speaker 1:And you know that I agree with that. No one entity, no one individual can do it on their own. And now we have AI, and so over the past 18 months to two years we've seen this perhaps once in a generation, maybe once in a millennium we have this rise of AI and automation.
Speaker 2:We have this rise of AI and automation. And so, jane, what do you believe are the most pressing issues in workforce development that Working Nation is focusing on are going to change at a pace we've never seen before. The skills that are required to do a job effectively are really changing all the time. So in the 90s, you know, in the 80s even we talked about lifelong learning, and we talked about it so much that people kind of got numb to the idea. But in 2024, if you're not a lifelong learner, you're not going to be employable. You're going to have to be able to learn skills on the job with the support of your employer, and you're also going to have to learn skills on your own so that you have the kinds of skills that keep you competitive in your current job but also give you that career pathway. So I think that's the biggest lesson. I think the second thing I would say is we're all struggling right now with the kinds of skills you know.
Speaker 2:Everybody's still talking about talent, the war for talent. You know the hunger for talent, the need for talent, but the reality is we're at a very early stage and I think AI could help us with this in figuring out what are the skills required by each job? Historically we've looked at job titles and we have historically also said you're more suited for a job if you have a certain degree. Now, as we peel back these job titles and look at the skills required, we see first of all number one not every job that formally required a bachelor's degree or an associate's degree does right now, because people have picked up these skills on the job or they've picked them up on their own as they transfer from high school into the workforce. So that skill push is making the degree more questionable. There's no question in my mind been a really wonderful indicator of your success and your earning power throughout your workforce career. But the reality is I think it's a wake-up call for higher ed, and here's where AI is going to help. There too.
Speaker 2:As employers figure out what the skills are that are required in different job titles, academic programs, high school, college are both going to have to realize that those skills have to be addressed in their curriculum. So as we figure out that you have to be a good project manager to qualify for a lot of high-paying jobs out and existing right now, how are you teaching and reinforcing project management in your own curriculum. That's a simple example. There are hundreds, you know, as we look at data analytics, as we look at other academic skills that haven't been directly aligned, necessarily, with work. Finally, I would say, george, ai is going to be very helpful in figuring out real work problems.
Speaker 2:In figuring out real work problems. Work-based learning is the necessity of every educational opportunity right now. You have to know how your skills fit into a job, but there's not a registered apprenticeship for everybody, there's not even a paid internship for everybody, and if we want everybody to have at least one of those experiences throughout their academic career, I would like multiple. We're going to have to look at other ways to do that and I think AI is going to be very helpful in figuring out how do we put real world work-based problems into today's curriculum into today's curriculum and so taking it perhaps a step further.
Speaker 1:Jane, working Nation is producing a ton of content in the media content world, specifically on workforce topics. How important is the topic that we like to talk about a lot, which is storytelling, driving change in this space?
Speaker 2:I think it's critical. I mean, our founder, art Bilger, had this idea nine years ago and what he felt then is true today. Traditional media, even social media, is not covering these topics fully enough. You know, they talk about Numbers Day the first Friday of every month. They talk about job fairs. They do their best but they're trying to be everything to every topic.
Speaker 2:We concentrate only on this topic and I think the reality is the storytelling piece is critically important to motivate people to believe that they can make transitions. So if they're in a field that's contracting you know, a field where there's not as many opportunities as there may have been in the past, and they want to move into a safer field, they want to move into something that they think is more recession proof. So you could use a clear example like healthcare. People want to move into healthcare, but they're not sure what the jobs are and they're not sure if, at their age or their skill level, there's a quality job for them in that field. We tell these stories so that people see people like them that went for a little re-skilling in many cases and got the skills that they needed to fill in the gaps and then went on to these careers. We do it.
Speaker 2:Now I mentioned healthcare. We do healthcare, but we've done so many. We've talked about blue collar fields. We've talked about advanced manufacturing, additive manufacturing. We've talked about financial services. We've even talked about fields that people think they know all about, like construction, but really when you dig into it, construction, like every other sector, is greening. They're using different materials that are more sustainable, so some of the skills that are required are quite different. So I really hope people go to the website and look at what we have there and then tell us what we're missing. That's the best part, right, because we're only as good as the last story we told, and every week we're telling new stories, both journalistically on a podcast like this one, and also in video. So I really hope that people take a look and tell us where we should be exploring.
Speaker 1:And so, as we look at all the work that's being done by Working Nation, one of the areas that you focused on a lot, Jane, has been resilience, specifically within companies, NGOs, government and the individual effort to become more resilient. What does that take and what does Working Nation do to support a resilient workforce?
Speaker 2:So, number one we only talk about solutions. I mean, everybody spends a lot of time wringing their hands about problems and too few people really sit down and talk about solutions. So we try to make sure we're looking for what are the best practices out there, both for businesses in attracting and retaining talent, for businesses in creating real ladders to mobility, and for businesses in how they create lasting partnerships, so that they're looking at pipelines, and sometimes different pipelines. Many sectors suffer from occupational segregation. You think of a teacher and a nurse and you automatically think of a woman. You think of a welder and a financial advisor. Too often you only think of a man and technology the same way.
Speaker 2:So we try to tell these stories from a lens that is supporting the employer because, quite frankly, without business there are no jobs. So we want to make sure that businesses have the talent they need. We spend time with them. We want to make sure that the people who are training potential workers for those businesses have a real insight into what the needs are today. So, whether that's a four-year college, a community college or a nonprofit, we want to make sure that they see the longevity of skills and where those skills fit into job titles and finally, and to me, the most important, we spend a lot of time really trying to target you and me, the moms and pops at a kitchen table, the normal people who are just so confused.
Speaker 2:They hear all this noise about AI is going to create jobs, all this noise about AI is going to take away jobs, and some of them have lived through robotics in the past. Some of them have lived through technology in the past. But you know what they don't remember? That it's the fear that takes hold. So we try to reassure them that A they have a lot of skills that are transferable skills, whether they're really occupational skills or whether they're what I call employability skills knowing how to work hard, knowing how to communicate, knowing how to work in a team, how they can take what they have, package a little more short-term kind of credentials onto that and then stack them into whatever they need in terms of a degree if they do need a degree.
Speaker 1:Incredible. Those are priceless insights and perspectives, jane. And so, as we go further in this interview, you've had just incredible experiences in the public sector, the nonprofit sector and in the private sector. And so, as we look at future global leadership, what does effective leadership look like to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, look for me, and I understand if people differ. I hope they don't. For me, effective leadership is number one. Inclusive. It's leadership that listens to everyone in their aura and learns from each of them. Inclusive also in the way you heard me talk about occupational segregation.
Speaker 2:We need to be really careful that we are looking at talent every place. It exists by gender, by age, by race, by the ability or disability that you may have. And, of course, I have a special place in my heart for justice involved If you made a mistake and paid your debt to society. We should be removing barriers, not creating more. We need talent and I would say that the second thing a leader has to do is really give good feedback.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think many people that are aspiring to a job or are starting work in a sector don't get the kind of feedback they need. They don't feel appreciated. I'm not talking about lavishing praise on people. I'm talking about giving people honest feedback about how they're doing their job and what kinds of skills they bring to your workforce and how those skills are appreciated. I think that's a dying art and I hope I really hope it has a resurrection. And finally, I would say good leaders take constructive criticism themselves. None of us is perfect. None of us is the perfect leader. So the more we ask, encourage, respect and really quantify what people are telling us and improve, I think, the better we're all going to be.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right, jane, and so your mentors, your role models. Who were they, who shaped your career and who inspires you to continue on to be the best you can be and change the world in every way that you're changing it?
Speaker 2:Well, like many of us, it started with my parents. You know, my parents told me I could be whatever I wanted to be. I could do whatever I needed to do, and they instilled in me early on that idea of service to others. Volunteering was a part of my life as a young child, so I think that was important. But you know what, george? Everybody looks at me and thinks, oh, there's a real go-getter, there's somebody who was pushing. I wasn't. I was a classroom teacher and I would have been incredibly happy to stay in classroom teaching until the end of my career.
Speaker 2:But an amazing woman, a researcher at Temple University in Philadelphia, did some work in my junior high school and encouraged me to come and work for her as a researcher at Temple. I would never have left my ninth grade special ed class, never. I had really no need to. I was very happy. But that exposure to schools all over the country, that exposure to her brilliance her name was Margaret Wong. Unfortunately she's no longer with us, but she changed my life by showing me that not only could I make a difference for the 15 kids who were in my special ed class every year, but I could work with other teachers around the country and then work with policy. She's the person.
Speaker 2:It's through that research experience that I testified at the Senate and got exposed to being a policy person, so she was incredibly important to my changes. And then, of course, george, you know Senator Kennedy, one of a kind forget his political party. He was a proud Democrat, but every piece of legislation and I think the last count I did was like over 160 pieces of legislation that I worked on while I was with him and there was not one that he did that wasn't bipartisan, not one that he didn't work across the aisle on, and he just taught me so much about listening, about compromise, about civil discourse. He really completely changed my life and I thank the two of them all the time.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's so cool. It's so cool to hear you know. It's sort of like the Wizard of Oz. You know, you see this incredible career that you've had and when you peel it back, it really is all about people.
Speaker 1:It is all about those people that have changed the. You know your trajectory and and what we always talk about at ideagen, which is that one person truly can change the world and or impact or affect the trajectory of someone else's life and career, et cetera. So you just described that and that just just completely gives me hope, and I think all of our listeners around the world hope in, in the ability to change the world as an individual or as part of a greater team. So, jane Oates, thank you so very much. You are leading the way. What is your final call to action for our global audience?
Speaker 2:Get involved, you know, I mean always have time for people, always have time to make a difference and always make time for George.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, and how can folks find out more about Working Nation and the incredible work there?
Speaker 2:Please go to our website, workingnationorg. Lots of stories on there and you can contact me directly if you need some navigation on that site. I really look forward to having you all give me your ideas so that Working Nation and their incredible work can continue for many, many years to come.
Speaker 1:There you go, jane Oates, changing the world. One person, one organization, one day at a time. Thank you so very much, my friend.
Speaker 2:Thank you, George.