Conference Presentation, Panel
The 'New' Trades: Rethinking Education for a Digital World
- Milken Institute plans to convene a new diversity discussion 12 months after the previous event featuring leaders with renewed or new commitments.
- Intel anticipates a five-year timeline to achieve full workforce representation from the C-suite down, warning that failure to do so following a $300 million investment will result in an internal workforce shortfall.
- MacArthur Foundation intends to reorganize learning ecosystems around cities using digital badges and co-designed playlists to make learning visible and link interests in fashion or music to technical skills.
- Troy Carter expects that combining systematic youth programs with employer commitments from companies like Intel and Apple will enable direct recruitment from historically black colleges into jobs or startups.
- James Shelton predicts a U.S. tech sector worker shortfall of one million in eight years, contrasting the need for 1.4 million workers against a traditional pipeline producing only 400,000.
- Opportunity at Work aims to scale non-traditional pathways where individuals gain job readiness in three to six months, potentially earning over $70,000 annually without a four-year degree.
- Intel plans to deepen project-based learning and mentoring efforts while experimenting with new approaches to address STEM drop-off rates.
- Will.i.am intends to expand his foundation's reach to almost 300 kids starting at age nine, organizing annual trips to China for Mandarin and Cantonese instruction and hosting quarterly "apathons" to build technical skills.
- Will.i.am forecasts that AI will soon reach intelligence levels equivalent to 1,000 humans, creating a trillion-dollar industry that poses security risks if American youth remain unprepared.
- Will.i.am plans to establish 10 FLL leagues initially, with a tenth starting next year, targeting youth at age nine to compete with LEGO robotics before potential gang recruitment occurs.
- Rosalyn Hudnell expects the job market to increasingly favor small startup tech companies and anticipates that 75% of Intel's products will remain built in the United States to create diverse role models.
- James Shelton expects the National Society of Black Engineers and National League of Hispanic Engineers to increase visibility, shifting community narratives regarding who can succeed in tech.
- Van Jones and Will.i.am plan to lead a dedicated hour of practical discussion in a separate room immediately following the panel for attendees wishing to engage further.
- MacArthur Foundation expects that connecting social media and consumption interests with creation pathways will transform youth engagement from passive to active participation.
- Connie Yowell anticipates that embedding badges and playlists into existing systems like sports leagues or music will make invisible opportunities visible to children currently excluded from the tech pipeline.
- James Shelton believes employers opening pathways for non-traditional candidates will see a return that opens significantly more opportunities than previously thought.
- Rosalyn Hudnell expects mentoring by black male engineers acting as basketball coaches to serve as a successful model for scaling diversity efforts by addressing race through a realistic lens.
- Will.i.am expects corporate marketing dollars to be utilized for community engagement, framing this as a strategy to earn the right to sell products within a community.
- Connie Yowell predicts that transforming the future of learning requires a collaboration between the public and private sectors, where company involvement in race and learning is critical for opportunity youth.
- Will.i.am expects music to be reintegrated with math in schools by viewing music as math to resolve the current separation of these subjects in the curriculum.
- Will.i.am expects real-time translation technology to solve language barriers, suggesting schools prioritize computer science or coding over traditional second language instruction.