I'm David Goldstein, senior fellow at Civic Ventures.

As we continue to muddle through the COVID pandemic, we continue to be confronted with economic

numbers that just wouldn't make sense in a normal economy.

For example, there are millions of job openings out there, employers allegedly looking for

workers at the same time unemployment remains relatively high.

Millions of workers are still looking for work and we can't seem to line up the workers

with the jobs.

In the past, some economists have argued that mismatches like this are the result of

a skills gap that were just not educating American workers to take advantage of the jobs

that are out there.

But if you're a regular listener, you might agree with me that this is, well, bullshit.

Throughout most of history, the most relevant job skills were always learned on the job.

Through apprenticeships, workplace training, and just months and years of experience.

So this idea that skills come from a college degree just doesn't hold true, even for

most college educated white collar workers.

To learn more about the role and responsibility of employers in helping their workers develop

the relevant job skills, I talked with Nicola Lowe, professor in city and regional

planning at UNC Chapel Hill.

My name is Nicola Lowe and I'm a professor in city and regional planning at UNC Chapel

Hill and I teach courses in economic and workforce development and my new book, which is out

this year, is called Putting Skill to Work, how to create good jobs in uncertain times.

Thanks for joining us.

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